THE INDEPENDENT: The suicide of Alireza Pahlavi, the youngest son of the former Shah of Iran, is a reminder of the futility of the dream that one day the royal family may be restoredWhatever it was that sustained Alireza Pahlavi – his money, perhaps, his good looks or even a lingering nostalgia for luxuries and status lost – it ran out this week. With a single squeeze of the trigger, the youngest son of the former Shah of Iran, aged 44 and living in a well-to-do corner of Boston, took his own life on Tuesday.
Neighbours in the South End district of Boston won't miss him much, even if they liked to gossip about his royal lineage every once in a while. Almost no one knew the man who always looked debonair in pressed jeans and a blazer, climbing from his Porsche before disappearing into his brownstone home, its windows obscured by interior shutters.
That he generated pavement chit-chat was hardly surprising. He was different. He had been raised as the second in line to the ancient Peacock Throne of Persia, accustomed once to unimaginable privilege. As an adult in Boston he seemed accomplished – he attended Ivy League universities – and had once been touted as the city's most eligible bachelor. But to wonder at the man and his pedigree was to ignore the demons burrowed inside. >>> David Usborne | Thursday, January 06, 2011
BBC NEWS MIDDLE EAST: The younger son if the Shah of Iran, Alireza Pahlavi, was "extremely affected" by his family's exile, former Iranian minister Mahnaz Afkhami says.
Alireza Pahlavi killed himself in the US after a long battle with depression.
Ms Afkhami, who was minister for women's affairs during the Pahlavi era, told the BBC World Service that the fall of the Shah was a "traumatic experience" for Alireza, who was 13 years when his father fled the country in 1979. Listen to BBC audio >>> | Wednesday, January 05, 2011
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