Iran’s Alireza Pahlavi, the younger son of Iran’s former Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was overthrown by the Iranian revolution in 1979, has committed suicide, his family said.
“It is with immense grief that we would like to inform our compatriots of the passing away of Prince Alireza Pahlavi,” the family said in a statement on the website of Pahlavi’s elder brother Reza.
Pahlavi, 44, committed suicide today at his apartment in Boston, according to the statement. He wasn’t married, it said.
Boston police spokesman James Kenneally said in an interview his department is investigating an apparent suicide reported at 2:11 a.m. Boston time today. Police haven’t linked that investigation with the death of Pahlavi pending further investigation, Kenneally said.
“Like millions of young Iranians, he too was deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life,” the family’s statement said.
The statement was signed by Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the former deposed Iranian leader, his brother Reza Pahlavi and Farahnaz Pahlavi, Yasmine Pahlavi, Noor Pahlavi and Iman Pahlavi.
Pahlavi was born in Tehran. He went to high schools in Egypt and Massachusetts. He later attended Princeton University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Music and Ethnomusicology in 1988. Pahlavi then graduated from Columbia University in 1992 with a master’s in ancient Iranian studies. He was pursuing a post-graduate degree in Iranian studies at Harvard University.
Pahlavi liked sky diving, scuba diving, flying and reading, according to his mother’s website.
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