Son of the Iranian Shah Commits Suicide
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The Under-Underground Voice of Iranian Rap
AFP.
The ambitions son of the Iranian Shah, Prince [sic] Alireza Pahlavi, committed suicide, his family informed the press today.
Alireza Pahlavi, who was a doctorate student at Harvard, had been a vocal critique of the Islamic Republic which dethroned his authoritarian father and sent his family into exile.
In 2009, he briefly became a source for the press during the post-election protests in Iran. Pahlavi urged a united Western response to the Iranian government and support for the protests and intimated he may harbor ambitions to return to Iran in a political manner if the current regime was overthrown.
He denounced the Islamic Republic leaders as "At worst, fanatical tyrants who know that the future is against them may end their present course on their terms: a nuclear holocaust."
Given his own personal grudge against the Islamists and his own ambitions, he tendency to engage in hyperbola was understandable. But his impertinence was something else: In condemning the Islamic Republic he who wax apologetically about his own father's regime, which was a brutal state with a notorious secret police SAVAK. He would add that at least his father had the good grace of stepping down and that this was somehow reflective of his moral character and concern for the Iranian people. Yes, he stepped down but only after he slaughtered hundreds of innocent Iranians in a savage attempt to maintain power and only left when it was clear that peace would never settled in the country again while he remained in office. And he father was a lavish spender which half the country was illiterate.
Having said that, the Islamic Republic is worse than the Shah. But still the latter's crimes should not be white-washed.
The cause for suicide according to the family: "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."
That sounds poetic and makes him appear like a martyr, but it should be taken with a grain of salt. Personal reasons, as often the case, may have been a stake and personal dishonor and anguish, although it may be tied to the current affairs in honor albeit not in the sense the family makes it appear.
