His Royal Highness Reza Cyrus Pahlavi, de jure His Imperial Majesty Shahanshah Reza II of Iran, was born in Teheran on the 31st October 1960 amidst great popular rejoicing. The country had been expecting for a male heir of the Pahlavi Dynasty ever since the Shah had first married Princess Fawzia of Egypt. Prince Reza Cyrus was born from the third marriage of the Shah, who had married Miss Farah Diba in late 1959. He would be the eldest of four from this marriage, as after him were born Princess Farahnaz, Prince Ali Reza and Princess Leila. He had an older half-sister, Princess Shahnaz, born from the first marriage of his father.

Prince Reza Cyrus officially became Crown Prince of Iran on the 26th October 1967, the day his parents were crowned in the Golestan Palace of Teheran. At the end of the ceremony he was presented as Crown Prince. His education was vacationed for the moment in which he would have to assume the headship of the Iranian Empire. His Imperial Highness received the first part of his education at home, in the Niavaran Palace Complex. In 1978, Reza Pahlavi left his homeland to complete his higher education in the United States. An accomplished jet fighter pilot, Reza Pahlavi completed the United States Air Force Training Program at the former Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. Later, after the fall of the Iranian Empire, he became a Political Science graduate of the University of Southern California.

The Imperial Family left Iran in January 1979 and then begun one of the most difficult periods for the family: while the Crown Prince remained in the United States, his parents went from country to country because none would accept them. All those who would have given much of their money to meet the Shah or be in Persepolis decided to refuse their help when the Shah needed it. Ill with cancer, he was finally welcomed in Egypt by President Sadat, where he finally died in August 1980. He was given a state funeral by President Sadat, but few of those old friends dared to attend the burial and comfort Empress Farah and her children.

Crown Prince Reza Cyrus was still a minor according to the Iranian Constitution and only on the 31st October 1980 he took over from his mother, who for a few months acted as regent, always respecting the rules of the Iranian Constitution. He then became, de jure Shahanshah of Iran and made a declaration to the Iranian people from Egypt. Since then he has lived in Morocco, Egypt and, since 1984, the United States. Shah Reza II has been a leading and vocal advocate of the principles of freedom, democracy and human rights for his countrymen but he has been a victim of the typical defamation by the new regimes, which has, nevertheless, assumed astonishing proportions in this particular case.

Reza II married Yasmine Etemad Amini in Connecticut, USA, on the 12th June 1986. Princess Yasmine, daughter of Abdollah Amini and Forough Etemade, is a graduate of George Washington University School of Law. The imperial couple has two daughters: Her Imperial Highness Princess Noor of Iran, born on the 3rd April 1992 and Her Imperial Highness Princess Iman of Iran, born on the 12th September 1993, both in the USA. The family resides in the state of Maryland. Shah Reza II takes a very close interest in the Iranian and in the international life. He is closely involved with the exiled Iranian population.

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