Obviously, he did not want for possessions, prestige or education. He began his studies at Mt Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts went on to take a BA in Physics from Princeton, his Masters in Iranian Studies from Columbia University in 1992, and sometime before his death, according to his mother’s webpage, he was engaged in ancient Iranian studies and philology at Harvard University.
Since the news was announced on January 4th a very wide range of speculation regarding why this relatively young man, who appeared to have everything, took his own life.
“Patriotism,” is what one Iranian blogger “Sebastian” suggests. “Many ask how a prince could be so weak. But they remain inattentive to the burden of a disappointed prince. His education was based on patriotism. I am pretty sure that [patriotism] is the basis of the Pahlavis' view. For them losing their homeland is far more difficult than for other émigrés. They lost a country that didn’t become more prosperous and they couldn’t do anything against the ruin of their country. Being wealthy and politically influential also didn’t help them. Studying at Harvard living in a nice house, and traveling to here and there is not enough when you can’t perform what is expected from you.”
Dave Thier of the British paper, The Daily Beast pens in: “Alireza Pahlavi: The Lonely Life of an Exiled Prince,” that his death is but another tragic event in the tragic history of the Pahlavi family. Stephen Kinzer of the same paper seems to be of the same mind as Mr. Their, and he writes: The suicide of the shah's son is the latest tragedy for a dynasty drenched in blood.
His aunt, Princess Ashraf (1919-), the shah's twin sister had also been dealt a difficult hand. Her grandson Cyrus Pahlavi has had a film documenting those cards, THE SHADOW OF THE SHAH in production for a couple of years. On a website, supposedly hers, she “"Three decades ago French journalists named me "La Panthère Noire" (The Black Panther) and I must admit that I rather like that name, and that, in some respects, it suits me. Like the panther, my nature is turbulent, rebellious, self-confident it claims, is dedicated to the Loving Memory of my dear Son Prince Chahriar [sic] who gave his life for Iran.” In fact, it was just one month ago that his death was commemorated in France. Her grandson is making a film about her. (The French do seem to enjoy the Iranian Royal women.)Despite having lost him to an assassination, and having suffered through depressions, addictions, three failed marriages and her brother’s exile, she "continues to continue," as Simon and Garfunkel wrote.
A long-standing personal history of depression is the culprit in Time Magazine’s article’s “Iran Reacts to Suicide of the Shah's Son,” Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University and the author of a new book on the Shah, noted a family record of depressive behavior. "Sadly," Milani wrote in an e-mail, "the Shah did have a propensity for depression. In nearly every major profile of him prepared by the CIA, or British and American embassies, there is some allusion to this brooding, melancholy tendency. One report calls him 'Hamlet-like.' The other side of this tendency was the Shah's love of speed, fast cars, and flying. The sad young man [who] killed himself apparently shared both qualities."
Maboud Zabetian, a friend from the Prince’s Williamstown school days states "He lived a tragic life, he had a tormented and tortured soul, but he was a good guy. He was just somebody who got cards dealt the wrong way."
Prince Alizeza Pahlavi certainly had more than the average person’s share of dark misfortune with which to deal. Everyone has had the experience of moving and making new friends. Imagine never being able to contact your past. Imagine your humiliated father dying in a foreign country when you are a proud young man of 12 or thirteen. Perhaps you would grow even closer to your family, a sibling. Imagine, that she is overwhelmed with grief, and faraway from you in a lonely hotel room, takes her own life. At the time of his younger sister’s suicide, Alireza was engaged to a beautiful woman, Sarah Tabatabai on whom he leaned. A friend close to the shah's family told The Daily Beast. "She was his connection to life, art, and Iran, and she was very close to the queen.” Imagine losing that person as well. (Writer’s note: It was reported that Prince Alirezah’s fiancée died in a scuba-diving accident and that he never quite recovered from that. Other than one source, that was not substantiated.)
On Legacy.com, Fardia Pars who claims to have been “close to” the prince declares “Alireza's style even in taking his life was militaristic in nature, reflecting his royal background. ‘Like an army commander, he shot himself. He was a very disciplined man.’” Yet Fardia Pars was not there that night. No one was but Alireza. علیرضا و خدا میداند چه رخ داده است. Only he knows the real reason that allowed his academic hands to raise a cold hard gun to his own head. Suicide is a mysterious reaction that humans have more than 1,000,000 times each and every day. In order to accomplish self-murder, a person has to be in the darkest of dark places where there flickers not even the faintest light or hope or whisper of one coming tomorrow.
All told, no matter what money, education, level of privilege or politics that Alireza had, his life was indeed sad. It was long ago determined that humans are electromagnetically charged creatures with incredibly sensitive brains. Their chemical balance is dependent on good diet and harmonious lives in much that same way that our stomachs are. Prolonged life circumstances which a person perceives as extreme stress, emotional upset in particular with no apparent hope of change or improvement can and do precipitate depression and suicidal thoughts. Only a precious few make it to the front pages of the world’s media to remind us to look out for our brothers. Iran has done that. In this dark hour, they too mourn for the family deposed and exiled and now missing one more member, Alireza Pahlavi.
To see where the next memorials are, go to the Official Facebook Page:
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