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Between the 1950s and the 1970s, the Iranian Pahlavi regime took an authoritarian turn, which prompted part of the country’s educated youth to flee Iran and continue their studies abroad. In the case of France, these students were distinguished by the growing place they occupied in the political and media scene. The political practice of these Iranian students in exile in France changed profoundly, so much so that the French general intelligence agencies and the Iranian authorities saw the time these young people spent in France as a catalyst for their politicization. However, starting from a redefinition of the concept of politicization, it appears that, over the course of three decades, the years these students spent in exile in France was a time for them to develop their repertoire of action, and not a moment of change from an absence of politicization to political radicalization as it is presented in some sources.