Alireza, the third of the Shah’s four children, was 44. His younger sister, Leila, committed suicide in 2001 by overdosing on medications at the age of 31.
Alireza’s death was announced in a family statement that said he was depressed.
“Like millions of young Iranians, he, too, was deeply disturbed by all the ills [that have] fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life,” the statement said. “Once again we are joined with mothers, fathers and relatives of so many victims of these dark times for our country.”
The Boston Globe quoted Boston police as saying Pahlavi’s body was found about 2 a.m. Tuesday in his South End home with a solitary bullet wound. Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said that “preliminary investigation suggests that the bullet wound was self-inflicted.”
Alireza left Iran with his family in 1979 at the age of 12, just as he was completing junior high school. He attended high school in Cairo, New York City an Williamstown, Massachusetts.
He received a bachelor’s degree in music from Princeton and a master’s in classical Iranian studies from Columbia. He had been a student at Harvard pursuing philology and ancient Iranian studies, but Harvard said he was not enrolled this term.
He had lived in Boston for years, but maintained a low profile. He never married, though he was engaged for some years to Sarah Tabatabai. He pursued such hobbies and outlets as flying, skydiving and scuba diving.
The fact that the family immediately acknowledged that Alireza had committed suicide was a change from the death a decade ago of his sister, Leila.
For weeks after Leila died, her mother said only that Leila died “in her sleep” while a statement from the family’s senior male, Reza, said Leila passed away “after a lengthy illness.” Any hint of either suicide or drugs was avoided.
Leila Pahlavi died June 10, 2001, at the age of 31 in a London hotel room. The toxicology report published six weeks after her death showed she died of a massive overdose—five times the normal fatal dosage—of the insomnia drug seconal.
Mrs. Pahlavi said her daughter had withdrawn from both friends and family. “She never went out of the hotel,” the former empress said. “I asked a friend to visit her,… but she [Leila] didn’t want to see anyone.”
The Shah died of cancer in 1980 in Cairo. Alireza is survived by his mother, Farah Diba, now 72, his brother Reza, 50, his sister Farahnaz, 47, and his half-sister Shahnaz, 70.
