Pahlavi dynasty
The rulers of the Imperial State of Iran — Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi — employed secret police, torture, and executions to stifle political dissent. The Pahlavi dynasty has sometimes been described as a "royal dictatorship" or "one-man rule". According to one history of the use of torture by the Iranian government, the abuse of prisoners varied at times during the Pahlavi dynasty.