Loyalty Unwavering: My Life with the Shah of Iran (Reza Pahlavi)

Author: Farah Pahlavi (Iran), translated by Jiang Mei and Peng Xiubin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-10-01
Features: "Whenever I think back to that morning in January 1979, a sharp pain stabs my heart. For months, the capital of Tehran had been subjected to brutal attacks, yet the entire city was enveloped in a tense silence, as if our capital had suddenly held its breath. It was on January 16th when we were about to leave this country." Her story is like a fairy tale. Farah Diba, at the age of 21, married the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In this turbulent era, her quiet life underwent a dramatic transformation: the world media buzzed about her coronation as the Queen of Iran, and overnight, she became an international celebrity. Although severe divisions had already emerged within the country, during the early years of her reign as queen, she enjoyed a happy marriage, raised four children, and dedicated herself to domestic social and cultural endeavors. Twenty years later, this fairy-tale story turned into a nightmare: protests and riots plunged the country into chaos. To avoid bloodshed, Farah and the Shah decided to leave Iran. Living in exile, the Shah fell seriously ill and was never able to return to his homeland again. They sought refuge in Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Panama, and at one point, they hid in a hospital in New York where the Shah received treatment. Eventually, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat agreed to allow them to settle in Egypt. However, eighteen months later, the president himself was assassinated by fundamentalists. At that time, tensions between the United States and the Middle Eastern countries began to expose the inherent flaws in their foundations, making the story of the Shah's later years a deeply sorrowful episode in late-twentieth-century history. As the last queen of Iran, Farah Diba finally broke her silence to tell this heart-wrenching story—one about her love for the Shah and the country he ruled. This book shares her personal perspective on those turbulent times, and most importantly, it provides compelling human testimony from a witness who lived through a tragic domestic struggle in history.