Reza Pahlavi is a member of the Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled Iran prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. He is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and Farah Pahlavi (née Farah Diba), the last Empress of Iran. Following the overthrow of the monarchy, he has lived in exile and has remained an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Reza Pahlavi was born on October 31, 1960, in Tehran, the capital of Iran. His paternal grandfather was Reza Shah Pahlavi, who ruled Iran as Shah from 1925 to 1941. Because his father’s previous two marriages did not produce a male heir, Reza Pahlavi was the sole and undisputed heir to the throne. He was raised in a highly privileged royal environment, educated at a private palace school reserved exclusively for members of the royal family and court circles, and received instruction from private tutors. From an early age, he was trained to uphold and defend the institution of monarchy.

Alongside his formal education, Reza Pahlavi pursued aviation training. He completed his first solo flight at the age of eleven and obtained his pilot’s license one year later. His early exposure to military aviation reflected his preparation for a future role within Iran’s armed forces.

In August 1978, Reza Pahlavi was sent to the United States to continue his pilot training as a cadet of the Imperial Iranian Air Force. At the age of seventeen, he was enrolled in a fighter pilot training program in the U.S. state of Texas. He trained at the former Reese Air Force Base as one of forty-three student pilots selected for a one-year program, flying the Cessna T-37 Tweet and the Northrop T-38 Talon. However, before he could return to serve his country, the Iranian Revolution erupted and overthrew his father’s rule. As a result, he left the base in March 1979, approximately four months earlier than planned.

In September 1979, Reza Pahlavi began his higher education at Williams College in Massachusetts but withdrew in 1980. He later enrolled at the American University in Cairo as a political science student, though his attendance was irregular. In 1981, he formally left the program and continued his studies privately with Iranian scholars, focusing on Persian culture and history, Islamic philosophy, and the role of oil in Iran. In 1985, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in political science through distance education from the University of Southern California.

Reza Pahlavi is fluent in Persian, his native language, and also speaks English and French.

Beginning in 1978, widespread unrest swept Iran as Shiite groups, encouraged by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, organized mass demonstrations in major cities. These events led to the collapse of four successive governments and resulted in significant bloodshed. The monarchy was abolished, and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established. Thousands of officials, military officers, and civilians were killed during this period.

On January 16, 1979, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi left Iran with his wife Farah Diba and their children. The family lived temporarily in Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, and Mexico. Due to treatment for lymphoma, the Shah traveled to the United States on October 22, 1979, and later died in Cairo on July 27, 1980, at the age of sixty-one.

While residing in the United States, Reza Pahlavi and his family moved to Cairo in March 1980. Following his father’s death on July 27, 1980, Reza Pahlavi declared himself Iran’s new Shah on October 31, 1980, adopting the title “Reza Shah II” and asserting his position as the legitimate heir to the Pahlavi dynasty.

Since 1980, Reza Pahlavi has presented himself publicly as the exiled leader of the former Iranian monarchy. He is the founder and leader of the National Council of Iran, an opposition group based in exile. He has consistently advocated for a free referendum to allow the Iranian people to determine their future system of governance. During his father’s coronation ceremony in 1967, he was formally proclaimed Crown Prince of Iran.

Reza Pahlavi has been an active participant in Iran’s pro-democracy movement and remains one of the most prominent critics of the Islamic Republic. He has repeatedly called for mass protests, the dismantling of the current regime, and the establishment of a democratic political system. He has also argued that Iran should become a close ally of Western and European nations.

In 1985, while living in the United States, Reza Pahlavi met Iranian-American attorney Yasmine Etemad-Amini. The couple married on June 12, 1986, in Greenwich, Connecticut. At the time of their marriage, Reza Pahlavi was twenty-five years old and Yasmine was seventeen. They have three daughters: Nur Pahlavi (born April 3, 1992), Iman Pahlavi (born September 12, 1993), and Farah Pahlavi (born January 17, 2004).

Reza Pahlavi has several siblings from his father’s marriage to Farah Diba: Farahnaz Pahlavi (born 1963), Ali Reza Pahlavi (1966–2011), and Leila Pahlavi (1970–2001). He also has a half-sister, Shahnaz Pahlavi, from his father’s first marriage.

His brother Ali Reza Pahlavi, a member of the Pahlavi dynasty, left Iran after the 1979 Revolution and settled in the United States. He died by suicide on January 4, 2011. His sister Leila Pahlavi, the youngest daughter of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and Farah Pahlavi, was nine years old when the family was exiled. Educated in the United States and later residing in New York, she died in London on June 10, 2001, from a drug overdose. She was buried in the family mausoleum at Passy Cemetery in Paris.

Reza Pahlavi’s mother, Farah Diba, continues to live between Paris and Washington, D.C., together with his sister Farahnaz Pahlavi.

On April 17, 2023, Reza Pahlavi visited Israel with his wife Yasmine Etemad-Amini at the invitation of the Israeli government, as part of efforts described as seeking to rebuild historic Iran–Israel relations. During the visit, he prayed at the Western Wall and visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, on the occasion of Yom HaShoah. He also met with Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On June 17, 2025, during the Israel–Iran War, Reza Pahlavi issued a public statement asserting that the Islamic Republic of Iran was “on the brink of collapse,” reiterating his call for fundamental political change in the country.

Source: Biyografiler.com