Reza Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi is an Iranian political activist and dissident in exile in the United States. A member of the Pahlavi dynasty, he is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, and Farah Diba. He is one of the mainstream figures of the opposition to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Born in Tehran, Reza Pahlavi was officially named Crown Prince of Iran at the time of his father's coronation in 1967. As a cadet of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, he moved to the United States for pilot training at Reese Air Force Base in 1978. The next year, his father was overthrown and the monarchy was abolished in the wake of the Iranian Revolution led by Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1980, following the death of his father in exile in Cairo, Egypt, Reza Pahlavi declared himself shah of Iran, styling himself "Reza Shah II", and actively participated in political activities opposing the Islamic Republic from abroad.
In 2013, he co-founded the Iran National Council. Ideologically, he has expressed support for a democratic transition in Iran and has advocated for a referendum to be held in Iran to determine the nature of the future government. Pahlavi has repeatedly called for protests against the Islamic Republic, and has called for the removal of the current regime from power. He has also advocated for Iran to become an ally of the Western world and Israel. While some Iranians have voiced support for Pahlavi, his support inside Iran remains unclear.
He has been the most prominent leader of opposition to the current Iranian government during the 2025–2026 Iranian protests.
Early life and education
Reza Pahlavi was born in Tehran as the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran and Farah Pahlavi, the Shahbanu. Pahlavi's siblings include his sister Farahnaz, brother Ali Reza, and sister Leila, as well as a half-sister, Shahnaz.File:ShahanshahiIran2500YearsPasargad7.jpg|thumb|A ceremony at Pasargadae to mark the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in 1971. The Crown Prince is at the far right, age 10, standing next to his parents.
When he was born, the Shah pardoned 98 political prisoners, and the government declared a 20 per cent reduction in income tax. He studied at the eponymous "Reza Pahlavi School", a private school located in the royal palace and restricted to the imperial family and court associates. He was trained as a pilot; his first solo flight was at the age of 11, and he obtained his license a year later.
In his youth, he was a keen football player and spectator. He was a fan of the capital's football club Esteghlal, then known as Taj, and his support was even televised by the National Iranian Radio and Television. The club performed in annual rallies organized on his birthday, identifying the club with the Pahlavi regime. He was also a supporter of Taj Abadan football club, another Iranian football team of the era.
As a cadet of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, he was sent to the United States in August 1978 to continue his pilot training. He was one of 43 cadet pilots in the one-year pilot training program at the Reese Air Force Base near Lubbock, Texas, which included flying the Cessna T-37 Tweet and Northrop T-38 Talon. As a result of the Iranian Revolution, he left the base in March 1979, about four months earlier than planned. He then joined his family in their travels, under tight security, from Morocco to the Bahamas to Mexico.
Pahlavi began studies at Williams College in September 1979, but dropped out in 1980. He then enrolled at The American University in Cairo as a political science student, but his attendance was irregular. In 1981, it was reported that he had dropped out of the program and continued his studies privately with Iranian professors, with a focus on Persian culture and history, philosophy, and oil in Iran.
While living in Morocco, Pahlavi obtained a B.S. in political science by correspondence from the University of Southern California in 1985. He is fluent in English and French in addition to his native Persian.
Political activities in exile
Reza Pahlavi came to Cairo, Egypt, in March 1980 with his family. When his father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ill and in the last weeks of his life, media reported that some monarchist elements had advised the Shah to oust Reza in favor of his younger son Ali Reza and a regency council, suggesting that Reza's background, training and interest in public affairs were too limited to become his successor. The Shah was understood to have rejected the idea and abdicated himself in favor of one of his two sons.When the Shah died on 27 July 1980, Farah Pahlavi proclaimed herself as the regent, a title in pretense. On his 20th birthday on 31 October, Reza Pahlavi declared himself to be the new king of Iran, Reza Shah II, and the rightful successor to the throne of the Pahlavi dynasty. Immediately afterward a spokesman for the United States Department of State, John Trattner, disassociated the U.S. government from Reza Pahlavi by stating that the U.S. government did not intend to support Pahlavi, and assuring that the U.S. government recognized the newly established post-revolutionary Iranian government.
In 1981, Pahlavi remained in the Koubbeh Palace and developed close ties to pro-monarchy groups while facing rejection from other opposition groups, including left-wing dissidents. In March, he issued a statement for the Persian New Year. He urged all opponents of the Iranian government to unite behind him and wage a "national resistance". Still, he chose to remain silent and made no reaction when President Abolhassan Banisadr was deposed, and the assassination of tens of officials including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti took place in June.
In August, Pahlavi announced that he had been secretly planning to overthrow the Iranian government, stating, "So far I have been unwilling to unveil the existence of the concerted plans for I do not wish to jeopardize the lives of some of our best children... many of our actions have been unknown to you, but I want to assure you that the necessary steps are being taken in the best orderly way to save Iran".
In 1982, Yaakov Nimrodi told BBC in a radio interview that along with Adolph Schwimmer and Adnan Khashoggi, he was involved with Pahlavi and Gen. Said Razvani to scheme a coup d'état and install Pahlavi in Iran. According to Samuel Segev, the plan had the approval of both the CIA and the Israeli cabinet, but it was abandoned when Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin resigned in 1983 and the new leadership under Yitzhak Shamir "thought Israel should not be involved in a new adventure".
In May 1986, Pahlavi disclosed that he had recently formed a government-in-exile to establish a constitutional monarchy again in Iran. In February 1989, he delivered an invited talk at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. His political support base at the time was limited to upper-class Iranian Americans and he raised $1 million to finance his political activities over two months in the spring of 1989. He moved in a narrow circle of exiled government officials and academics, guarded by aides like his childhood bodyguard Ahmad Oveyssi.
Pahlavi has used his high profile as an Iranian abroad to campaign for human rights, democracy, and unity among Iranians in and outside Iran. On his website, he calls for a separation of religion and state in Iran and 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.
In a presentation at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in December 2018, Pahlavi called for the non-military support of those in Iran who were trying to replace the Islamist regime with a secular democracy. According to a news report, he was "not openly calling for the restoration of the Peacock Throne... He casts himself more as a symbol than a politician, but has called himself 'ready to serve my country'".
During anti-government demonstrations in Iran in 2022 following the Abadan building collapse, Pahlavi predicted that the Islamic regime would collapse in the near future as events such as the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, bans on importing foreign COVID-19 vaccines and tests into the country and rising food prices had led to unnecessary deaths and would provoke further anger at government mismanagement from the population. He also urged members of the Iranian armed forces who oppose the Islamic Republic but work for the government to engage in peaceful disruption and called for a coordinated front against the regime. While acknowledging support from Iranian demonstrators chanting for the return of the monarchy, he also stated, "The most important thing I do in response to the Iranian people's trust is to reinforce their voices. I don't tell them what to do. I'm not a political leader."
In a February 2023 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Pahlavi called on the British and European governments to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arguing such a move would be "pulling out the biggest tooth the regime has". In the interview, he also argued his belief that the Islamic Republic was more likely to fall in the near future than it had been in previous decades as Iranian reformists had switched tactics to wanting to completely overthrow the regime as opposed to changing it. He acknowledged many Iranian dissidents wanted him to play a central role in creating a new government but reiterated that he would leave it to the people of Iran on whether to restore the throne and that he would not run for political office if the regime fell.
Pahlavi also predicted that the greatest challenge for a new secular, liberal democratic Iran would be the question of controlling the military and seeking justice against officials in the regime. He concluded that higher-ranking members of the Islamic regime would face trials for human rights abuses but lower ranking members could be pardoned to allow reintegration into society, citing the Nuremberg trials in which top Nazi officials were prosecuted while lower ranking members were reintegrated back into Germany, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in South Africa after the end of apartheid as examples to follow.
In March 2023, Pahlavi embarked on a tour of the United Kingdom and gave a speech to the Oxford Union. During the speech, he argued that "secular is a prerequisite to democracy" and that Islamic regimes fail by not accepting freedom of religion. He called for the right to Internet access to be restored to Iran to help communication between dissident movements and for non-violent tactics to be used in bringing down the Iranian regime. During the speech, a large demonstration took place outside in support of Pahlavi calling for his restoration.
On 17 April 2023, he and his wife Yasmine visited Israel in "an effort to rebuild the historic relations between Iran and Israel". Upon his arrival in Israel, he visited the Western Wall and Yad Vashem on the occasion of Yom HaShoah, and met with President of Israel Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu. He also paid a condolence call to the bereaved Dee family at their home in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, after the deaths of sisters Maia and Rina and their mother Lucy in a terror shooting during the Passover holiday.