Ali Reza Pahlavi (born 1966)

This article is about the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. For his uncle of the same name, see Ali Reza Pahlavi (born 1922).

Ali Reza Pahlavi (Persian: علیرضا پهلوی; 28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011) was a member of the Pahlavi imperial family of the Imperial State of Iran. He was the younger son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah of Iran^[1] and his third wife Farah Diba.^[2] He was second in order of succession to the Iranian throne before the Iranian Revolution.

Ali Reza Pahlavi
Prince Ali Reza in 1976
Born	(1966-04-28)28 April 1966 Tehran, Imperial State of Iran
Died	4 January 2011(2011-01-04) (aged 44) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Issue	Iryana Leila Pahlavi
House	Pahlavi
Father	Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mother	Farah Pahlavi

Biography

Ali Reza Pahlavi was born on 28 April 1966.^[3][4] He attended the Niavaran Palace primary school in Iran^[5] but left Iran alongside his family shortly before the Iranian revolution. He moved to the U.S. where he attended Saint David's School in New York City and Mt Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts.^[6] Pahlavi received a BA degree from Princeton University, an MA degree from Columbia University,^[7] and was studying at Harvard University as a PhD student in ancient Iranian studies and philology at the time of his death.^[4][8]

He was engaged in 2001 to Sarah Tabatabai, but it seems that the relationship ended some time afterwards.^[9] He made one of his rare public appearances in 2005 at the funeral of Prince Rainier of Monaco in Monte-Carlo, alongside his mother Farah Diba.^[10] From 2007 to 2011 he was in a relationship with Raha Didevar, to whom he became engaged in 2010.^[11] Their daughter, Iryana Leila Pahlavi was born in July 26, 2011 in Boston. He was once voted one of the "world's most eligible princes."^[12]

Death

After a long period of depression, on 4 January 2011 Pahlavi died in his apartment in the South End, Boston, (141 West Newton Street)^[13] from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.^[14]

Mahnaz Afkhami, the former Iranian Minister of Women's Affairs of the Shah's government, told the BBC World Service that Pahlavi and his family being forced into exile in 1979 was very "traumatic" for him and that he had experienced a "loss of identity" in exile.^[15] Ali Reza's sister, Leila Pahlavi also had died by suicide, in June 2001. Close family friends say that Ali Reza became very depressed after the death of his sister to whom he was very close.^[16] He was survived by his mother, Farah Pahlavi, his older brother Reza, his sister Farahnaz, half-sister Shahnaz,^[17] daughter and partner.^[18]

His brother Reza Pahlavi said that his wish was to be cremated and for his ashes to be scattered in the Caspian Sea.^[19]

On 23 January 2011, an official memorial was held in The Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland.^[20] The memorial was attended by the former Iranian imperial family and thousands of Iranians.^[21]