Pahlavi, the descendants of the last Shah of Persia

Reza Pahlavi was 18 years old when the 1979 Islamic Revolution removed his father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, from power to establish a Shiite theocracy in Iran . A year earlier, the prince had left the country to train as an air force officer in the United States Air Force, at a base in Lubbock, Texas. Since then, he has been unable to return to Iran , having to live in exile. “I have been advocating for democracy in Iran and fighting for human rights and the liberation of the country for 44 years. I have dedicated my life to this cause,” said the crown prince in an interview with the Life Stories project in 2024. Almost a year later, Reza Pahlavi has reinforced his willingness to lead a new revolution in Iran , in the face of the escalating conflict between the country and Israel and now with the entry of the United States into the conflict. “There is a plan not only for the liberation of my countrymen from this regime but for what comes next, what we hope will be a democratic resolution,” he said in another recent interview with Bloomberg.

This Sunday, after the US joined Israel in the war against Iran, and even guaranteeing that the objective is not to overthrow the regime, Reza Pahlavi reacted to the attacks against the three Iranian nuclear plants and defended on the social network X that “ the only sure way to achieve peace is the end of this regime ” that has governed the country for more than four decades.

“The attacks on the Islamic Republic’s three nuclear facilities are the result of the regime’s catastrophic pursuit of nuclear weapons at the expense of the Iranian people. Ali Khamenei and his crumbling terrorist regime have failed the nation. As Khamenei ponders how to respond from his underground bunker, I say this to him: For the sake of the Iranian people, respond by stepping down , so that the proud Iranian nation can leave behind the disastrous period of the Islamic Republic and begin a new chapter of peace, prosperity and greatness,” he wrote.

The strikes on the Islamic Republic's three nuclear sites are the result of the regime's catastrophic pursuit of nuclear weapons at the expense of the Iranian people.

Ali Khamenei and his crumbling terrorist regime have failed the nation. As Khamenei considers how to respond…

— Reza Pahlavi (@PahlaviReza) June 22, 2025

Reza Pahlavi has lived in the United States for several decades and hopes to return to his country to lead a period of transition after the eventual fall of the Islamic Republic of Iran created after his father's removal.

It was when he was about seven years old that Reza Pahlavi was crowned crown prince during the coronation ceremony of his father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , in 1967. “On the way back I realized that there were expectations from the people about me,” says the pretender to the Persian throne, who claims to have been groomed to be the successor . His father assumed leadership in 1941, during the Second World War, when his grandfather, Reza Shah Pahlavi , was forced to abdicate after the Anglo-Russian invasion. In 1953, a coup supported by the US and the United Kingdom, overthrew the prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and returned power to the Shah. However, the coronation ceremony only took place 26 years after he ascended the throne , on Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's 48th birthday. “It went from a traditional country to one that was totally committed to development, modernity and progress,” says Reza Pahlavi, who also says that his father promoted “the liberation of society in aspects such as women’s rights. Iran was on the path to being a very progressive society, if the revolution had not happened.”

For Robert Steele, a researcher at the Institute for Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the coronation more than two decades later was, in fact, a “monarchical spectacle.” “Every aspect of the event was designed to convey the idea that the Shah was both traditional and modern, the guardian of a 2,500-year-old tradition of monarchy, but also a revolutionary,” he wrote in a 2021 article . Part of this image was created by the so-called White Revolution , which involved a redistribution of land and investment in modernizing industry. “Attempts were made to codify a state ideology based on the glory of monarchy and the veneration of ancient Iranian kings,” Steele writes. “The Shah adopted titles such as Aryamihr (the Sun in Aries), linking him to the ancient tradition of kingship, and implementing modern reforms such as land redistribution and increased rights for women,” the researcher says.

In fact, these were different years from what we know about Iran today, especially in terms of the way women were treated. Between the 1960s and 1970s, they gained the right to vote, hold political office and were free to walk in public places without the hijab and even wear Western clothing, such as the miniskirt . “The imperial family was presented as the archetype of the Iranian family, a model for the people. Empress Farah was the ideal woman in the Pahlavi utopia. She was beautiful, elegant, took care of her husband and children and served her country,” writes the researcher, about the first woman to be crowned empress in Iran in many centuries.

The presence of the crown prince, within this context, was common at public events, as he himself reports: “Inaugurations, visits to factory workers, award ceremonies, sporting events, visits to schools”, says Reza Pahlavi, who gives as an example the ceremony commemorating the 2,500th anniversary of the creation of the Persian Empire , in 1971, which went down in history as the biggest celebration in the world.

It is estimated to have cost around €1.5 billion . The ancient ruins of the city of Persepolis were filled with tents decorated with 37 km of silk and 50,000 birds were imported from Europe. The meals were prepared by Maxim's, which closed its doors for two weeks in Paris for the occasion. A hundred Iranian military planes transported the materials for the tents, 150 tons of kitchen items and 18 tons of food from France to make up the banquet, served by waiters hired from Badrutt's Palace Hotel in St. Moritz. More than 25,000 bottles of wine and 12,000 bottles of whiskey were consumed. Among the guests were 60 international heads of state , including kings, queens, princes, dukes, sheiks and presidents from around the world. Some of the illustrious names who were received at Persepolis were the Duke of Edinburgh and his daughter Princess Anne, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, and King Constantine of Greece. At this point the Shah proclaimed himself “the king of kings” .

But for the opposition, the party only served as fuel. “There were no elections,” says Esmaeil Khataie, who was a student representative from 1969 to 1971, in a 2016 BBC documentary . “Even reading a book was difficult. If you were caught with a banned book, you would be beaten to death,” he says. At the same time, the Shah’s reforms also aimed to reduce the powers of the clerics . After an initial economic boom, largely supported by oil trade in partnerships with the United Kingdom and the United States, Iran stagnated, which fueled religious opposition, according to American history professor and political scientist John P. Dunn. “The revolution was fueled by discontent with the Shah’s autocratic regime, characterized by economic mismanagement, corruption, and the intense influence of Western culture. The discontent united diverse groups, including radical clerics, leftist activists, and disaffected citizens, under the leadership of Ayatollah Rhollah Khomeini , who opposed the Shah’s reforms to reduce religious authority,” he wrote in an article published in 2023.

In January 1979, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran, and was deposed on April 1 of the same year in a referendum that established the Islamic regime . The last Shah of Persia went into exile first in Egypt, then in Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico and the United States, where he received medical treatment for cancer. In November 1979, less than nine months after the overthrow of the monarchy, a group of students supporting the Islamic revolution stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 hostages, demanding that Washington extradite the Shah to face trial in Iran. The crisis only ended 444 days later , after the death of the deposed Shah, already in exile in Egypt.

Under the new regime, the crown prince was unable to return to Iran . He first completed an air force training program in the United States and then completed a degree in political science at the University of Southern California by correspondence, while living between Paris and Morocco. A few months after his father’s death, on his 20th birthday, Reza Pahlavi proclaimed himself Shah Reza II in Cairo, the Washington Post wrote in 1989. “The year is 1980, my father is dead, there is a crisis in the country, a war started in September. There are people who need my moral support, strength, confidence, at least a small window of hope. I came to say: ‘Look! I have the choice at 20 to ignore it, after all I am not crazy, I am already established, I have a decent life and I can live comfortably. What is my motive? I am a nationalist, I want to serve my country and I cannot turn my back on my people. I am here to serve you, ladies and gentlemen, I am here if you need me,” said the young Reza Pahlavi, from his home in the suburbs of the US state of Virginia. Since then, the crown prince has been an active voice opposing the ayatollahs ’ regime . He has given numerous interviews to international media outlets, published articles and written three books on the political issue in Iran.

In 1985, while still living in Switzerland, he met Yasmine Etemad-Amini , a 17-year-old Iranian girl who lived with her family in San Francisco, California. The two met for the first time at the airport, thanks to mutual friends, and maintained a long-distance romance for about a year, when they married in June 1986 and moved together to Washington. At the time, they lived in a house that was described as a “palace” and that had a nightclub in the basement. The crown prince, then 28, denied living in such a sumptuous way and claimed not to have a job and to support himself with the help of family and friends. “People have the impression that I have billions, which is a lie, it is pure sensation.”

Farah Diba Pahlavi , the widow of the last Shah of Persia, is now 86 years old and has lived between Paris and Washington since her husband's death in 1981. In 2023 , she opened the Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi Foundation in Portugal, a foundation dedicated to promoting the memory and history of Iran through the estate accumulated throughout the country's life. “For political and diplomatic reasons between France, the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, I preferred not to choose any of them. I knew that Portugal had a stable, mature democracy, that it was a multicultural, tolerant country and open to the international community. I also knew of Portugal's vocation for receiving foreign foundations, such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and recently the Aga Khan Foundation, which are very good references”, she explained in an interview with Expresso , revealing that she had only been to the Algarve once, many years ago . However, the foundation has had little activity so far: the collection was last on display in May 2024 at a hotel in Paris. The official website states that the intention is to promote scholarships and awards, but claims that it is currently “raising funds to contribute to the specific programs and projects described in the 'what we do' section”. The organization also does not have a physical headquarters, but says it is looking for a local partner to “house the works of art, books and digital archive”.

Before leaving Iran in 1979, Farah Diba was already a big fan of modern art and had a collection that the BBC estimated in 2018 was worth more than 3 billion euros and included works by Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso and even a portrait of the empress by Andy Warhol (which was damaged with a knife after her exile). The pieces are currently in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran and were to be exhibited in 2024. “What I bought, I went to Iran,” she said, saying she didn’t take anything with her when she left the country. An architecture graduate from Paris and passionate about art and fashion , Farah became known as the “Jackie Kennedy of the Middle East” . For her wedding, she wore a dreamy Yves Saint Laurent wedding dress, and throughout her reign she paraded Guerlain and Dior looks, always adorned with jewels and diamonds.

Farah Diba was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's third wife and the only one capable of giving him a son who would be his successor. The couple also had three other children: Princess Farahnaz; Princess Leila, who committed suicide in a London hotel in 2001 after suffering from severe depression; and Prince Ali-Reza, who followed the same path in 2011 in Boston, at the age of 44, also as a result of depression, according to a public statement read by his brother.

If Farah Diba was an icon in her time, the Pahlavi women are following the same path , being present in the public space, whether by supporting the opposition to the current regime in Iran, or through style and elegance. The Crown Prince's wife, Yasmine Pahlavi, has a law degree and works as a lawyer at the Children's Law Center in Washington DC , in addition to having founded and directing the Foundation for the Children of Iran. The Crown Prince's wife revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in 2018 , and documented her journey of healing through social media, where she has more than a million followers .

Her popularity is reflected in her daughters, aged 33, 32 and 21. Noor Pahlavi , the eldest, was born in 1992 in Washington, D.C., has a degree in psychology from Georgetown University and now lives and works in New York. She is the most politically involved of her sisters, accompanying her father to lectures and events, such as the National Union for Democracy meetings in Iran. She is also an activist and works in non-governmental organisations to reduce poverty, promote animal rights and support education. On social media, she shares political messages and typical influencer photos with over a million followers : showing off her outfit of the day, her parties and her trips to St. Tropez, Ibiza or ski resorts in Aspen, Colorado.

Iman Pahlavi , the second sister, also lives and works in New York. She graduated in psychology and communications from the University of Michigan and two weeks ago she married in a multicultural ceremony with the American businessman Bradley Sherman , who works in the financial market and is believed to be of Jewish origin. Iman is the least popular of the sisters on social media, with around 50 thousand followers , but she also takes a political stance in some posts. Her feed is made up of photos of family moments, trips and parties with friends. The youngest daughter, Farah , is 21 years old and is the one who posts the least politically. Of the three sisters, she is the only one who has not yet completed a degree and has spent the last few months traveling: since the beginning of the year she has been to Norway, Switzerland, Italy, France and Greece. In fact, the young woman celebrated her 21st birthday in January in Paris, where she celebrated with family and friends.

The three are often photographed participating in human rights demonstrations in Iran, accompanied by their father, mother and grandmother. In recent days, as the conflict has escalated, they have shown support for a possible overthrow of the Shiite regime, defended by their father and groups advocating the return of the monarchy. Having lived in the United States for more than four decades, Reza Pahlavi raised his family in a Western society. In a podcast appearance in 2024 , the crown prince denies that his father converted to Christianity before he died, calls himself a man of faith but states that religion “should be a private matter” and defends the rights of religious minorities. “I hope that one day Iran will not have to worry about whether its leader is male or female, Jewish, Christian or atheist. It should not be about that.”

And he is ready to take on his role if the regime falls. But that does not appear to be Trump's intention. For now. But it is Israel's.