Reza Cyrus Pahlavi

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Pretender: Reza Cyrus Pahlavi
Born October 31, 1960 (age 46)
Tehran, Iran
Regnal name claimed Reza Shah II (according to supporters)
Title(s) if any Crown Prince (which he does not use or claim)
Throne claimed Iran
Pretend from July 27, 1980 - present
Monarchy abolished 1979
Last monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Connection with elder son
Royal House House of Pahlavi
Father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mother Farah Pahlavi
Spouse Yasmine Pahlavi
Children Noor, Iman, Farah

Reza Pahlavi (Persian: رضا پهلوی, born October 31, 1960), is the former Crown Prince of Iran, the elder son of late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his Empress Consort, Farah Diba.

He succeeded his father as Head of the House of the Pahlavi dynasty[1] and is currently the pretender to the former throne of Iran. As such he is referred to by supporters as His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah II.[2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

In 1978, he moved to the United States to complete his higher education. He was trained as a jet fighter pilot at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas and is a political science graduate of the University of Southern California. He has not returned to Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution and cannot do so without risking arrest and imprisonment while the country is under the Islamic Republic.

After the revolution, Reza Pahlavi lived in exile in Morocco and Egypt until 1984, when he settled in the United States.

In 2004 Reza Pahlavi was named as the "unofficial godfather"[1] of Princess Louise of Belgium the eighth granddaughter of King Albert II of Belgium. The decision to choose him was criticized by the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic.[2]

[edit] Family

He lives in Potomac, Maryland, with his wife, the former Yasmine Etemad Amini, and their three daughters: Princess Noor, (born April 3, 1992) Princess Iman, (born September 12, 1993), and Princess Farah (born January 17, 2004).

Pahlavi's siblings include Farahnaz Pahlavi (March 12, 1963), a brother Ali Reza Pahlavi (April 28, 1966), as well as a half-sister, Shahnaz Pahlavi (October 27, 1940). His youngest sister, Leila, died of a drug overdose in 2001.

[edit] Monarchy

The Iranian monarchy was overthrown after the revolution of 1979 and replaced by an Islamic republic. Although the most prominent royals now live in exile, some Iranians still regard Pahlavi as the current Shah of Iran. After the death of his father, Mohammad Reza Shah, Pahlavi symbolically declared himself Shahanshah at the age of 21, but now his press releases refer to him as either "Reza Pahlavi" or "the former Crown Prince".

[edit] Offer to fight in Republic's air force

In 1980, at the start of the Iran-Iraq war, Pahlavi, a fighter pilot, wrote to General Velayatollah Felahie, Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, offering to fight in the air force for Iran in the war. The offer was rebuffed.[3]

[edit] Prospects of a royal restoration

Young Reza Pahlavi proclaiming himself as the crown prince of Iran on television.
Enlarge
Young Reza Pahlavi proclaiming himself as the crown prince of Iran on television.

In an interview with David Frost on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme, Pahlavi defined his aims with the words "I think that the choice of future government should be left to the Iranian people to decide in a free election. What form it ultimately take is up to them, the issue, the essential point for me is that there is no way that we can achieve the aspirations that we have as a nation unless we have the separation of church and state and under the current regime clearly we don't have that."[4] Reza Pahlavi has clearly stated though that in his opinion a constitutional monarchic system will better serve democracy in Iran rather than a republic system. [5]

Critics are dismissive of the prospective return of a Pahlavi to the throne. "Speaking purely theoretically, everything is possible," prominent pro-reform journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin told AFP. "After all, look what happened in Spain after the fall of General Franco — a king replaced him. But if we look at the reality of Iranian society today, the hypothesis of a return of the monarchy is very far from reality. The revolution and the Islamic republic have reinforced the foundation of a republican system in Iran, and there are very few people who want a monarchy. The overwhelming majority of people are against it." [6]

Others are less dismissive. Rob Sobhani, an academic and political activist told the BBC "I think there's a role for all dissidents, including the son of the Shah - because Iran today is thirsty for leadership, Iran is thirsty for someone with vision. I think what's lacking in Iranian politics today is someone with a vision. I think if that individual - a man or a woman - appears on the scene and grabs the attention of the Iranian people, with a vision of what he or she would like the country to move towards, they will certainly be the beneficiary of that goodwill, that thirst for a leader." [7]

Pahlavi maintains a hope that opposition groups such as the nationalist and the communist parties are also against the current regime can be united to bring down the regime. [8]

Reports do however speak of a growing curiousity about Pahlavi. A Wall Street Journal report in November 2001 quoted a 17-year-old Iranian student as saying "We didn't know who he was. But as soon as we heard him, we felt it was our own words that we couldn't say. He said them beautifully." [9]

[edit] Politics

Reza Pahlavi has used his high profile status as an Iranian abroad to campaign politically for human rights, democracy, and unity to Iranians in Iran and outside it. On his website he calls for a separation of religion and state in Iran and for free and fair elections "for all freedom-loving individuals and political ideologies". He exhorts all groups dedicated to a democratic agenda to work together for a democratic and secular Iranian government and states that "I intend to lead this movement".[10]

Pahlavi has used media appearances to urge Iran's theocratic government to accept a referendum that used independently verfiable international standards and observation mechanisms.[11] [12][13] He has also urged Iranians to engage in a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience, starting with non-participation in elections of the Islamic republic (elections he views as "undemocratic"), followed by peaceful demonstrations and strikes. He is, however, an outspoken opponent of any foreign military intervention for regime change in Iran[14], believing that the people of Iran alone have the power to bring about change in their governmental system and society.

On 5 August 2005, Pahlavi wrote to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, to criticise the decision "not to call for a Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran during the last meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights."[15]

In the letter, he wrote

Many if not all the political prisoners in Iran are brutalized and held in solitary confinement in spite of the numerous specific recommendations of the United Nations to stop and put an end to such inhuman practices. Unfortunately the Islamic Republic of Iran has so far ignored these recommendations as well as all the urgent appeals made by international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Despite the threats, human rights activists in Iran continue to fight for their freedom and human rights at the risk of imprisonment, torture, disappearance and death. I salute their courage and dedication.[16]

[edit] Criticism of motives

Criticism of Pahlavi exists beyond the current ruling elite in Iran to their supporters. One American left wing publication stated that "some of the statements attributed to Pahlavi suggest that there's a dangerous streak of kingly greed that fuels his motives and that he merely covets the throne for personal reasons and, in order to get it, is willing to sell out the Iranian people in the process . . . As if to echo the neo-conservatives, Pahlavi argued for the political and economic boycott of Iran using the Iraqi model, in order to undercut the Iranian regime while seemingly ignoring the dastardly effects that action would have on the people he wants to "liberate"."[17] It also accused him of "[cutting] a backroom deal by garnering political support and funding from the US Congress for private Iranian-American satellite companies in California and US government sponsored external radio programs such as Radio FARDA, geared to reprogramming Iranians under 30 years of age."[18]

[edit] Honors

[edit] Quotes

  • "Don't appease the dictators. They only understand the language of power." [19]
  • I know what my function is today, and my function today is to be a catalyst that promotes unity as opposed to being an element that brings polarity. My role today is not institutional, it's political. My role today is not someone who will be a symbolic leader under that institution, but a national leader that is fighting for freedom.[8]
  • "It is the real content of the political system that matters, not the name. I would like to openly declare that, if, in a free referendum, the people of Iran would choose the future government of their country to be a democratic republic, I will have achieved more than ninety percent of what I hoped for. I expect, however, every patriotic Iranian republican to think in the same way if the people's choice is a constitutional monarchy."[citation needed]
  • ""Women's rights are human rights ... Under the clerics, however, the Iranian women have suffered the most by having been subject to the most humiliating social restrictions and laws."[20]
  • "Our country is at the crossroads of destiny. The slightest neglect will cause irreparable loss for our motherland. Our responsibility before history demands that we spare no effort to save our nation from the tyranny of this insane and inhuman regime. Differences of views and opinions between political leaders and organizations are natural in any open society. It is a fruitless exercise to argue and linger on these differences, however, while the people are forced out of the arena of decision, and there is no freedom of discussion or choice inside the country."[9]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ The Roman Catholic Church, the Church of the child being baptized, does not accept non-Catholics as godparents, given the religious nature of the role, so Pahlavi's role was downgraded to unofficial, not formal.
  2. ^ AFP report 6 September 2004
  3. ^ Middle East News
  4. ^ Interview with Sir David Frost, "Breakfast with Frost" 20 January 2002
  5. ^ Interview with Human Events
  6. ^ AFP interview with Iranians on the issue of the possible return of the monarchy
  7. ^ BBC News 30 July 2003
  8. ^ Interview with Human events
  9. ^ Middle East News
  10. ^ Reza Pahlavi website
  11. ^ BBC Radio
  12. ^ Reza Pahlavi interview
  13. ^ Reza Pahlavi interview
  14. ^ Reza Pahlavi interview
  15. ^ Letter to Kofi Annan
  16. ^ ibid
  17. ^ Counterpunch
  18. ^ ibid
  19. ^ counterpunch website
  20. ^ Middle East News
  21. ^ www.rezapahlavi.org

[edit] Publications

  • Reza Pahlavi, Gozashteh va Ayandeh, London: Kayham Publishing, 2000.[21]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Pahlavi dynasty
Born: 31 October 1960; Died:
Titles in pretence
Preceded by
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi		 * NOT REIGNING *
Shah of Iran
(1980-)		 Incumbent
Designated heir:
Ali Reza Pahlavi
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