Mohammad Reza Pahlavi << moh ham AD reh ZAH pah lah VEE >> (1919-1980) was the shah (king) of Iran from 1941 to 1979. He succeeded his father, Reza Shah Pahlavi. During his reign, Mohammad Reza introduced a number of reforms that helped modernize Iran. However, he also ruled as a dictator. A revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a conservative Muslim leader, overthrew Mohammad Reza in 1979.
Mohammad Reza was born on Oct. 26, 1919, in Tehran. He studied in Switzerland before returning to Tehran in 1935 and attending military school. Mohammad Reza became shah in 1941, after the Allies forced his father from power during World War II (1939-1945). After becoming shah, Mohammad Reza joined the Allies. Allied troops remained stationed in Iran during the war, shipping supplies through to the Soviet Union. The shah ruled the country as a constitutional monarch.
After the war, Mohammad Reza’s government was challenged by Iranian Communists and by a group of nationalists led by Mohammad Mosaddeq. In 1951, the nationalists seized the British-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and forced the shah to appoint Mosaddeq prime minister. In August1953, the shah participated in a joint American-British plan to topple Prime Minister Mosaddeq. When the initial stage of the operation failed, the shah and his wife, Queen Soraya, fled the country. Within a few days, however, the coup succeeded and the shah returned. His rule then became increasingly dictatorial.
In 1963, Mohammad Reza began a series of programs known as the White Revolution. The programs eventually included land reform, the extension of voting rights to women, and the creation of literacy and health organizations. Over the next decade, the shah used portions of Iran’s oil revenue to promote still further development. His government built schools, airports, highways, railroads, dams, and irrigation facilities. Rapid economic change led people to move from rural areas to cities.
Mohammad Reza’s modernization program was accompanied by a brutal and oppressive rule. Critics accused him of denying freedom of speech and other basic rights and of using the military and secret police to silence opposition. Critics also claimed that his spending policies and government corruption had harmed Iran’s economy. In addition, many conservative Muslims thought his policies violated Islamic religious law. Opposition groups formed among students, intellectuals, industrial workers, and religious leaders.
In 1978, revolution erupted in Iran, causing the collapse of the shah’s regime in early 1979. Mohammad Reza went into exile. Already stricken with lymphatic cancer, Mohammad Reza was admitted into the United States for medical treatment in October 1979. A few days later, Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took a group of Americans hostage. The rebels demanded the immediate return of Mohammad Reza to Iran for trial. The U.S. government refused.
Mohammad Reza moved to Panama in December 1979 and to Egypt a few months later. He died in Cairo, Egypt, on July 27, 1980. The American hostages were released in January 1981.
