Hamid Reza Pahlavi

Hamid Reza Pahlavi (Persian: حمیدرضا پهلوی; 4 July 1932 – 12 July 1992) was Reza Shah's eleventh and last born child, and a half-brother of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran.

Hamid Reza Pahlavi
Born4 July 1932
Tehran, Imperial State of Iran
Died12 July 1992(1992-07-12) (aged 60)
Tehran, Iran
Burial
Behesht-e Zahra
SpouseMinou Dowlatshahi
Homa Khameneh
Houri Khameneh
IssueNiloufar Pahlavi
Behzad Pahlavi
Nazak Pahlavi
Ja'afar Pahlavi
HousePahlavi
FatherReza Shah
MotherEsmat Dowlatshahi

Early life and education

Hamid Reza Pahlavi was born on 4 July 1932. He was the youngest son of Reza Shah and his fourth and favourite wife, Esmat Dowlatshahi.[1][2][3] His parents married in 1923.[1][4] His mother was a member of the Qajar dynasty. Of both his parents he had four siblings: Abdul Reza Pahlavi, Ahmad Reza Pahlavi, Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi and Fatemeh Pahlavi.[5] They lived in the Marble Palace in Tehran with their parents.[2]

He studied in the United States and in Tehran.[6] While attending high school in Washington, D.C., (the Honeywell Foundation) in September 1947, he skipped school to take a train to Hollywood, California, to visit his brother, Mahmoud, who was studying at UCLA.[6] He stated that he did so because his high school did not have girl students and he was homesick.[6] He had acted similarly three months previously, leaving his high school in Newport, Rhode Island, to travel to Paris and Provincetown.[6]

Personal life

Hamid Reza married three times and had four children.[7] He first married Minou Dowlatshahi in Tehran in March 1951.[7] Of this marriage he got a daughter: Niloufar Pahlavi (born 1953). In 1959 he married Homa Khameneh, by whom he had two children: Behzad Pahlavi (1957–1983) and Nazak Pahlavi (12 February 1958 – 27 December 1987).[8] In 1974 Hamid Reza married Houri Khameneh, by whom he had one child: Ja'afar Pahlavi (born 1975).

One of his sons, Behzad, lived in the United Kingdom for a while, but he was brought by Shah Mohammad Reza to Iran and attended the military school in Tehran.[9]

Due to his scandalous lifestyle, Hamid Reza's title of prince was removed and the Shah banned him from the court.[9] In the 1960s he became known as a leading figure in opium trafficking business.[10]

Later years and death

After the Iranian Revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Hamid Reza stayed in Iran and changed his name to Islami.[9] However, he was arrested as a vagrant in 1986.[8][11] He received a sentence of ten years in Evin prison on drug charges.[11] In an interview held in prison in 1989, Pahlavi however stated that he was sentenced for his family connections.[11] He also said that he was not treated badly in prison and "things could be worse".[11] Inmates in his prison cell included a former general and senior officials of the Shah's regime.[11] In July 1992, while serving his sentence, he died of a heart attack.[12]

References
  1. "Reza Shah Pahlavi". Iran Chamber Society. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  2. Diana Childress (2011). Equal Rights Is Our Minimum Demand: The Women's Rights Movement in Iran 2005. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-7613-7273-8.
  3. Gholamali Haddad Adel; Mohammad Jafar Elmi; Hassan Taromi Rad, eds. (1 October 2012). Pahlavi Dynasty: An Entry from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam. MIU Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-908433-01-5.
  4. Gholam Reza Afkhami (13 December 2008). The Life and Times of the Shah. University of California Press. p. 605. ISBN 978-0-520-94216-5.
  5. Edgar Burke Inlow (1 January 1979). Shahanshah: The Study of Monarchy of Iran. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 91. ISBN 978-81-208-2292-4.
  6. "Hamid flies coop again. School without girls fails to charm Iranian Prince." The Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 September 1947
  7. "Dowlatshahi family". Qajar Pages. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  8. "Nazak". Argentic. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  9. Asadollah Alam (1991). The Shah and I. London and New York: IB Tauris. p. 245. ISBN 1-85043-340-2.
  10. Maziyar Ghiabi (June 2019). Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108567084. ISBN 978-1108475457.
  11. "Late Shah's brother interviewed in prison". The Indiana Gazette. 2 August 1989. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  12. "Hamid Reza Pahlavi". Orlando Sentinel. 15 July 1992. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
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