Whenever I see mentions of the protesters asking for the Sha to come back, I can't but to worry for the future of Iran even if the protests succeed.

Fun fact, the clergy was a crucial part of the coup, backed by CIA. The same people in power now, btw.

I never understood why some people get so fixated on one event in 1953, as if nothing else mattered after that.

Sure, it had a nontrivial effect. But it also happened in a time when Stalin and Churchill were still alive, there were 6 billion people fewer on the planet and the first antibiotics and transistors barely entered production. Korea was poorer than Ghana etc.

It is 2026, three generations have passed, and not everything can be explained and excused by a 1953 event forever. But it is convenient for autocracy advocates in general.

It reminds me of the worship of the Great Patriotic War in Russia. Again, as if nothing that happened later matters.