on 8/6/2023, 3:43:12, in reply to "Re: Marriage of the Crown Prince of Jordan (Shades of the Persepolis Celebrations?) "
Jordan in 2023 is obviously an entirely different society than Iran in the 1970s demographically, historically, geographically, economically, and on so many other levels. But it as for comparing levels of support, it is always very hard to know what sort of support a regime without press freedom has until after the fact. As late as New Year's Eve 1978, President Carter went to Tehran and toasted the Shah for making an Iran "an island of stability in one of the most troubled areas of the world" and praised him as a "popular king."
In the meantime, while the Western media's interest in Jordan focuses mainly either on the royal family or the Kingdom's supporting role in its various neighbors' travails, the Kingdom itself has been convulsed over the past several months by widespread and often violent protests. Here is a good article about it from March of this year: https://www.fpri.org/article/2023/03/jordan-another-peak-in-a-multi-year-cycle-of-domestic-and-external-challenges/
And while every case is different, I personally find it hard not to see echoes from Versailles to St Petersburg to Tehran to Amman in the opulent celebrations of fabulously wealthy and glamorous dynasties - the well-meaning and personally kind but autocratic king, the beautiful and iron-willed queen, the children they both adore - presiding dictatorially over largely impoverished populations. 
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Not sure if the opposition to the Hashemites is anywhere near as strong as it was against the Pahlavis.
Given what happened with the King's half-brother, Prince Hamzah two years ago and the probably not coincidental absence of both him and Queen Noor from the wedding guest list it does remind me of the worrying disunity at the heart of the family and its obvious implications. I think the fact that the bride comes from a prominent Saudi family is obviously useful in cementing ties between the two kingdoms especially given the rumours of Saudi involvement with Prince Hamzah in the unsavoury business of two years ago and that she might have been selected especially for that reason.
I think the scale of the wedding was probably meant to convey a sense of stability and solidity to the outside world after what had happened and to ensure the Crown Prince's future as the next King of Jordan.
As always, time will tell. PS. Interesting that the former Empress Farah was among the guest list. I wonder if she drew the same kind of parallels that you mentioned?
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As my Twitter and Instagram feeds have lit up with glamourous and glittering pictures of international royals and members of the Davos set in their jewels and haute couture, I can't help wonder what effect all this must be having on the people of the kingdom over which the young couple hope someday to reign. The most recent estimate I can find - from the Kingdom's own official statistics - is that more than 24% of the population live in poverty. Unemployment among some segments of the population are close to half. The country is full of Syrian refugees. Freedom House gave the country a score of 33/100 on their Freedom Index for 2022. (As opposed to 83/100 for the US, 93/100 for the UK, and 100/100 for Sweden).
It's hard to imagine that this spectacle of royal glitter doesn't play rather worse among impoverished and oppressed locals than it does among royal glitter fans in Europe and North America.
Virtually every history of the Iranian Revolution cites the resentment caused by the last Shah of Iran's extravagant Persepolis Celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the Iranian Monarchy as inflection point in turning the public against the monarchy. And that was an event presented as a national celebration, accompanied by academic conferences and the building of what is now the Azadi Tower, now Tehran's most recognizable monument.
I might be totally wrong (which happens frequently), but I can't helping thinking this glittering demonstration of the Hashemite dynasty's place among the global elite, so remote from the lives of ordinary Jordanians, might be a rerun. Previous Message
Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan married his fiancée, a Saudi-born architect, a few days ago in Amman.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/06/01/exp-jordan-royal-wedding-anderson-pkg-06012pseg2-cnni-world.cnn
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