Reza Pahlavi (born 31 October 1960) is an Iranian political activist and the former Crown Prince of Iran. He is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Pahlavi Shah of Iran, and his wife, Empress Farah. He lives in the United States as a dissident in exile.
Born in Tehran, Reza Pahlavi was officially designated Crown Prince of Iran during his father's coronation in 1967. As a cadet in the Imperial Iranian Air Force, he moved to the United States to undergo pilot training at Reese Air Force Base in 1978. The following year, his father left Iran and the monarchy was abolished during the Islamic Revolution led by Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1980, following the death of his father in exile in Cairo, Reza Pahlavi declared himself Shah of Iran, adopting the title "Reza Shah II", and became active in political opposition to the Islamic Republic from abroad. In 2013, he co-founded the Iran National Council (INC).
Reza Pahlavi has advocated holding a nationwide referendum to determine the country’s future system of government. Pahlavi has urged Iranians to protest against the Islamic Republic and has called for the removal of the current regime. He has also advocated for Iran to become an ally of the Western world and Israel. While many Iranians have voiced support for Pahlavi, his support among the entirety of the opposition remains unclear. He has been described as a prominent opposition figure during the 2025–2026 Iranian protests, and as an influential figure for supporters of the monarchy. However, others have described him as a polarizing figure, with some critics pointing out his reliance on foreign backing. Pahlavi has positioned himself as a potential transitional leader of a democratic Iran should the ruling Islamic government be toppled.
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. When he was born, the Shah pardoned 98 political prisoners, and the government declared a 20 percent reduction in income tax.
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.
Pilot training 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.
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.
Higher education 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, he had reportedly 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.
Succession Reza Pahlavi is first in the line of succession to his late father. His younger brother Ali-Reza was second in line until his death by suicide in 2011. Before Reza Pahlavi's birth, the presumptive heir was Patrick Ali Pahlavi, the crown prince's cousin. On his website, Pahlavi has declared his eldest daughter, Noor Pahlavi as his heir, emphasizing his belief "in the inherent equal rights between men and women".
Political activities in exile 1980s
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 (who was 13 at the time) 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 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 of 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 the 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.
21st century
Pahlavi has used his high profile as an Iranian abroad to campaign for human rights, democracy, and unity among Iranians in and outside Iran.Prinz Reza Pahlavi über den Iran: "Dieses Regime ist äußerst anti-religiös" . (interview with Reza Pahlavi, in German) Zenit.org (31 March 2010). Retrieved 9 June 2012. 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.Reza Pahlavi. The Challenge Of Implementing Democracy And Human Rights In Iran. The International Society of Human Rights – Bonn, Germany, 27 March 2010. Rezapahlavi.comApril 2011 Q&A, Question 4 rezapahlavi.orgDecember Q&A, Question 7 rezapahlavi.org
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 to Iran ... He casts himself more as a symbol than a politician but has called himself 'ready to serve my country'".
In November 2014, Pahlavi founded his own television and radio network called Ofogh Iran. In July 2017 it was reported that the Ofogh Iran International Media telethon no longer belonged to Pahlavi.
In February 2019, Reza Pahlavi launched the Phoenix Project of Iran think tank in Washington, D.C., based on the short-lived Iran Future Association he initiated in Toronto in 2008. According to the National Interest, this is "designed to bring the various strains of the opposition closer to a common vision for a post-clerical Iran".
In July 2026, Reuters reported that Pahlavi faced criticism for failing to unite Iran's fragmented opposition, with activists blaming divisions within his inner circle. The investigation also documented multiple incidents in Europe in which some of his supporters were accused of assaulting or harassing critics, journalists and business owners. Reuters further reported that some major donors became dissatisfied with his leadership and ceased financial support, while several analysts argued that he lacked a broad political movement inside Iran. The report also stated that the Trump administration declined to endorse Pahlavi as a future Iranian leader and that some supporters criticized his restrained response to President Donald Trump's wartime rhetoric toward Iran.
Support within Iran While Pahlavi has long presented himself as an alternative to Iran's ruling clerics, opinions about him remain deeply divided, with many Iranians still associating his family with the Shah's authoritarian rule. A report published by the Brookings Institution in 2009 said that Pahlavi lacked an organized following within Iran since there was no serious monarchist movement in Iran itself. The report described Pahlavi as having "little in common with the intellectuals and students who make up the core of the reform movement".
During the 2017–18 Iranian protests, some videos on social media showed demonstrators chanting slogans in favor of Pahlavi's grandfather and calling for his return. On many occasions the videos indicated the royalist slogans prompted others in the crowd to shout the slogans down.
In January 2023, New York-based Iranian scholar and writer Arash Azizi noted that among younger Iranians on social media and at public demonstrations, support for Pahlavi has become more visible and argued, "To any fair observer of Iran, Pahlavi has a certain degree of support in Iranian society, although it is hard to discern just how wide this support is." He also noted that a number of Iranian dissident activists and celebrities, including Dariush Eghbali (who had been imprisoned under the Shah's rule), actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, actor Hamid Farrokhnezhad and Olympian Kimia Alizadeh have come out in support of Pahlavi being a figurehead to unite anti-regime movements.