Top 10 astonishing facts about Farah Pahlavi

Former Queen Farah Pahlavi. Photo by Ghazarians. Wikimedia Commons.

Top 10 astonishing facts about Farah Pahlavi

Farah Diba was born on the 14th of October 1938 in Tehran. She was married to the last Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and become successively queen.

Farah Pahlavi is the mother of The crowned prince who would have ruled Iran before the revolution.

She was the empress regent of Iran from 1959 to 1979. Farah was allowed to pursue interests other than domestic duties, though she was not allowed a political role.

She founded Iran’s first American-style university, facilitated buying back Iranian antiquities from museums abroad, and participated in numerous charities.

After exile due to the Iranian Revolution, her husband died and in widowhood she continued her charity work, dividing her time between the U.S, France, and Paris.

Here are 10 Astonishing facts about Farah Pahlavi:

1. She was born to a wealthy family

Farah Diba was born to a wealthy upper-class family in 1938. She was the only child of Captain Sohrab Diba and his wife, Farideh Ghotbi.

Her father came from a relatively affluent background. Her grandfather had been a diplomat serving as the Persian Ambassador to the Romanov Court in St. Petersburg, Russia in the late 19th century.

Her own father was an officer in the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces. After her father’s death, the young family was in a complex financial state.

2. Farah’s first son was the crown prince of Iran

Farah was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s third wife. He was married twice before to Princess Fawzia of Egypt bearing a daughter and Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary who was infertile.

Under agnatic primogeniture, his daughter could not inherit the throne and had to remarry to produce an heir.

Farah was under acute pressure to bear a male heir. Farah gave birth to a son to the relief of the Shah and the government a year after their marriage.

Her son Reza Pahlavi was the Crown Prince and heir inherent to the throne of the imperial state of Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

3. Pahlavi was crowned the first Shahbanu of modern Iran

Farah Pahlavi with crown. Photo by Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons.

Shahbanu was the title for queen consort in Persian and other Iranian languages. Farah Pahlavi was crowned the first Shahbanu or modern Iran in 1967.

Her coronation ceremony gained her recognition and great significance in the country.

In addition, the Shah named her the official regent which was highly unusual for a title for a woman in a Middle Eastern or Muslim monarchy.

She was to rule Iran should he die or be incapacitated before the Crown Prince’s 21st birthday.

4. She founded Pahlavi University

As the Empress one of her main initiatives was founding a university meant to improve the education of Iranian women.

Pahlavi university also known as Shiraz University is a public university located in Shiraz, Fars, Iran. It was established in 1946.

It was the first American-style university in Iran. Before then, Iranian universities had always been modeled on the French style. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious modern universities in Iran.

5. Farah met the Shah at the Iranian Embassy

Farah and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Photo by Unknown photographer. Wikimedia Commons.

The young Farah Diba was a student of architecture at École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris.

She was a student of Albert Besson who was a French hygienist, physician and member of the French Académie Nationale de Médecine.

The Shah made official visits to foreign countries frequently meeting with a selection of local Iranian students. As a head of state, the Shah visited Iranian students who were studying abroad dependent on State sponsorship.

In 1959 at the Iranian Embassy in Paris Farah Diba was first presented to Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

The Shah and Farah Diba began a carefully choreographed courtship in the summer of 1959 in Tehran. The courtship was orchestrated in part by the Shah’s daughter Princess Shahnaz and the couple engaged on 23 November 1959.

6. Farah Pahlavi facilitated the buying-back of Iranian antiquities from museums abroad

The Empress took an active interest in promoting culture and the arts in Iran. Numerous organizations were created and fostered to further her ambition of bringing historical and contemporary Iranian Art to prominence.

Her most recognized endeavor was supporting the performing arts was her patronage of the Shiraz Arts Festival. Most of her work was creating museums and building their collections.

Pahlavi founded several national museums, began an Iranian version of the National Trust, and cultural centers like Negarestan Cultural Center, Khorramabad Museum, the National Carpet Gallery, and the Glassware and Ceramic Museum of Iran.

7. Farah and her husband fled the country after clear signs of impending revolution

Farah Diba. Photo by Alirezaahmadi11268. Wikimedia Commons.

In Early 1978 growing anti-imperialist unrest fueled by communism, socialism, and Islamism throughout Iran began.

A number of factors contributed to the internal dissatisfaction with the imperial Government. Discontent in the country continued to escalate leading to demonstrations against the monarchy later in the year.

In January 1979 the political situation deteriorated further with riots and unrest growing more frequently.

The government enacted martial law which is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government. Violent protests began in response showing clear signs of impending revolution.

Shah and Shahbanu decided to leave the country departing Iran via aircraft on 16 January 1979 under the threat of a death sentence. Most countries were reluctant to harbor them, with President Anwar Sadat’s of Egypt being an exception.

8. Her husband died in exile

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had suffered from non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas.

The Shah’s health rapidly deteriorated after leaving Egypt causing him to seek medical treatment in the United States urgently.

The exiled Imperial couple’s brief visit to the United States further inflamed the already tense relations between Washington and the revolutionaries in Tehran.

This incident became the tipping point for renewed hostilities between the two nations ultimately leading to the attack and takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran.

The Shah and Empress were not given permission to remain in the United States and shortly after receiving basic medical attention, the couple again departed the U.S. The couple again made an appeal to President Anwar Sadat to return to Egypt.

In 1980, their request was granted and they returned to Egypt in March where they remained until the Shah’s death four months later on 27 July.

9. She moved to America after the assassination of President Sadat

Frič Jaroslav and Farah Pahlavi. Photo by Jiří Frič. Wikimedia Commons.

President Anwar Sadat had given refuge to the exiled ill Shah and Shahbanu again at the Koubbeh Palace in Cairo.

Farah had stayed there nearly two years after her husband’s death when the Egyptian President was assassinated. A few months later the Shahbanu and her family left Egypt for America.

President Ronald Reagan had informed her that she was welcome to return to the United States.

She first settled in Williamstown, Massachusetts then Greenwich, Connecticut, and after the death of her daughter Princess Leila in 2001 purchased a smaller home in Potomac, Maryland.

Pahlavi now divides her time between Washington, D.C., and Paris making annual visits to the late Shah’s mausoleum at Cairo’s al-Rifa’i Mosque

10. A documentary was created to honor her life

The Film entitled The Queen and I was released in 2009 by the Persian -Swedish director Nahid Person Sarvestani.

The film features a lengthy documentary about Farah Pahlavi’s life. The documentary pays homage to the great ex-empress of Iran and her achievement and struggles.

It was screened in various International film festivals such as IDFA and Sundance. In addition, a theatre play was also created in her honor by the Dutch director Keeps Roorda in 2012.

The play showcase’s the life of Farah Pahlavi in exile.