Jumal Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran

Jumal Reza Pahlavi (born 31 October 1960) is the last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran and current head of the House of Pahlavi. He is the older son of the late Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Farah Pahlavi.

Biography
Jumal Reza Pahlavi was born in Tehran, Iran, as eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and Empress Farah Pahlavi. Reza Pahlavi's siblings include his sister Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi (12 March 1963), brother Prince Ali-Reza Pahlavi (28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011), and sister Princess Leila Pahlavi (27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001), as well as a half-sister, Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi (27 October 1941).

He left Iran at the age of 17 for air force training. He spent a year at Williams College, but was forced to leave because of the turmoil in Iran. With the monarchy overthrown and an Islamic Republic established, Jumal Reza Pahlavi did not return immediately to Iran. He received a BSc degree by correspondence in political science from the University of Southern California, because Williams did not offer that option. A jet fighter pilot, Jumal Reza Pahlavi completed the United States Air Force Training Program at the former Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. In 1980, at the start of the Iran–Iraq War, Pahlavi, a highly-trained fighter pilot, wrote to General Valiollah Fallahi, 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.

With the death of his father on 27 July 1980, Jumal Reza Pahlavi became the Head of the House of Pahlavi.

Reza Pahlavi has written three books on the state of Iran.

According to Iranian writer Reza Bayegan, Prince Jumal Reza Pahlavi is deeply attached to his Shi'ite Muslim faith. He has named one of his daughters Iman (meaning faith in Arabic), and has performed the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.

Family
Reza married Yasmine Etemad Amini on 12 June 1986. Yasmine, a graduate of the George Washington University School of Law, worked for ten years as a lawyer for the Children’s Law Center as a legal advocate for at-risk youth. Yasmine also founded the Foundation for the Children of Iran in 1991, a non-profit foundation that provides health care services to Iranian children or children of Iranian origin.

Reza Pahlavi and his wife Yasmine have three daughters: Noor (born 3 April 1992), Iman (born 12 September 1993), and Farah (born 17 January 2004).

In 2004, Reza Pahlavi was named as the "unofficial godfather" 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 of Iran.

Business and Legal Issues
Reza Pahlavi is the owner of Medina Development Company, although it is unclear how this entity conducts business or where its revenues come from. He and his company were engaged in a civil lawsuit against a family member in the 90s culminating in a favorable judgment in May 1997.

Politics


Reza Pahlavi has used his high profile status as an Iranian abroad to campaign politically for human rights, democracy, and unity among 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.

According to Reza Bayegan, Prince Pahlavi believes in the separation of religion from politics. However, Pahlavi avoids the "Islam bashing" that Bayegan writes occurs in some circles of the Iranian opposition. Rather, he believes that religion has a humanizing and ethical role in shaping individual character and infusing society with greater purpose.

Pahlavi wrote in his book, Winds of Change:

Since the advent of Islam, our clergymen have served as a moral compass. Spirituality has been an inseparable part of our culture...Today, moral guidance has been replaced by clerical censorship and dictatorial fiat.

Pahlavi has used media appearances to urge Iran's theocratic government to accept a referendum that uses independently verifiable international standards and observation mechanisms. 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, believing that the people of Iran alone have the power to bring about change in their governmental system and society.

Human rights
On 27 March 2010, Reza Pahlavi was invited by the International Society of Human Rights in Bonn, Germany, to speak on the challenge of implementing democracy and human rights in Iran; a sample excerpt from this speech follows:

...democracy and human rights for Iran is not just a slogan; it is our unique hope for salvation and the fundamental element which will bring long term political stability as well as put our nation back on the track of modernity, progress and prosperity. Iranians have come a long way, particularly in this last century. We have paid a heavy price while learning valuable lessons. As such, we are stronger as a society and perhaps clearer in our collective vision of a better future.

Other samples of his speeches are in the External Links below.

2011 comments
In February 2011, Pahlavi said after violence erupted in Tehran that Iran’s youth were determined to get rid of an authoritarian government tainted by corruption and misrule in the hope of installing a democracy. “Fundamental and necessary change is long overdue for our region and we have a whole generation of young Egyptian and Iranians not willing to take no for an answer,” Pahlavi told the Daily Telegraph "Democratisation is now an imperative that cannot be denied. It is only a matter of time before the whole region can transform itself."

Monarchy
Following in a line of Persian dynasties stretching back 3000 years, the Pahlavi dynasty was founded early in the twentieth century. The revolution of 1979 led to the replacement of the Persian constitutional monarchy (de facto absolute monarchy) with an Islamic republic. Although he currently lives in exile, Pahlavi is still regarded by some Iranians as the current Shah of Iran. After the death of his father, Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Pahlavi symbolically declared himself Shāhanshāh (Literally, King of Kings in Persian) at the age of 21, but now his press releases refer to him as either "Reza Pahlavi" or "the former Crown Prince of Iran".

Succession
Succession is theoretical, as the Iranian monarchy was abolished with the Islamic Constitution in Iran in 1980. He is the current pretender in the succession line to his late father and Ali Patrick Pahlavi is the second in line.

Titles and styles

 * His Imperial Highness The Crown Prince of Iran (1960–1979)
 * His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Reza of Iran (pretender, 1979–present)
 * Reza Pahlavi (commoner name, 1979–present)

Publications

 * Reza Pahlavi, IRAN: L’Heure du Choix [IRAN: The Deciding Hour] (Denoël, 2009)
 * Reza Pahlavi, Winds of Change: The Future of Democracy in Iran, Regnery Publishing Inc., 2002, ISBN 0-89526-191-X.
 * Reza Pahlavi, Gozashteh va Ayandeh, London: Kayham Publishing, 2000.