HIM Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (1919-1980): Life Events and Death


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Asma2

Aristocracy
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Does anyone know how many wives had Shah of Iran and for how long?
 
Does anyone know how many wives had Shah of Iran and for how long?

As far as I am informed Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi had two wives (successively) - the first one was beautiful green-eyed Princess Soraya (Esfandiary Bakhtiari), also known as a 'princess with a sad eyes'. Very sad and romantic love story. The marriage didn't last for long since she couldn't bare children. After they divorced, she became one of the most prominent members of the world's high society. Yet, they say she died of a broken heart (in Paris).

Second and, to my knowledge, last wife was Empress Farah Diba. She is the mother of Shah's children and his widow now.

The role of Epress Fawcia is confusing, though - whom was she married to?
 
Former Iranian Empress and the second wife of Shah Reza Pahlavi - Farah Diba.
 

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Reza Shah had three wives. The first was Princess Fawzia of Egypt, the Second was Soraya who sadley was unable to have children and thus secure the line of succession. Empress Farah was the third wife and perhaps the most famous as she secured the succession with the birth of two sons as well as two daughters and she also became the first Persian Empress to ever be crowned.
 
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (October 26, 1919 - July 27, 1980) was the last Shah of Iran, ruling from 1941 until 1979. He was born in Tehran, Iran.


Shah Mohammad Reza PahlaviAs a young man, he was educated at Institute Le Rosey, a Swiss finishing school and in Tehran at the Military College.

His father, Reza Pahlavi, (1877-1944), was minister of war and was elected by the Iranian Assembly as Shah in 1925. Concerned that Reza Pahlavi was about to align his petroleum-rich country with Germany during World War II, Britain and the USSR occupied Iran and forced him to resign in favor of his son. His mother was the shah's second wife, Tadj ol-Molouk (1896 - 1982).

At the end of the War, political unrest dogged Iran and in 1953 the nation's socialist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh forced the Shah to flee the country. He was quickly escorted back to power by a joint military operation orchestrated by the American CIA and British MI5.

With Iran's great oil wealth, Pahlavi became the preeminent leader of the Middle East. He abolished the multiparty system of government so that elections for one party only allowed him to rule as an absolute dictator. During this time the Shah formalised his secret police force, SAVAK. Pahlavi made major changes to curb certain ancient elite factions by breaking up all large and middle-sized estates for the benefit of more than four million small farmers. In what was called 'the White Revolution', he took a number of populist measures, including extended suffrage to women, to favour the people.

His policies led to strong economic growth during the 1960s and 1970s but at the same time, opposition to his autocratic rule increased. On January 16, 1979 he and his family were forced to flee Iran a second time following a year of extreme turmoil and public protests. Following the Shah's departure, conservative Muslims led by the Ayatollah Khomeini staged a revolt, abolishing the monarchy and establishing an Islamic Republic.

The exiled monarch, now largely unpopular with much of the world traveled from country to country seeking what he believed would be a temporary residence. For a while he stayed in Paraguay, but his non-Hodgkins lymphoma began to grow worse, and demanded immediate and sophisticated treatment. Reluctantly, Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah to make a brief stopover in the United States, and undergo medical treatment. The compromise was extremely unpopular in Iran, where the new regime had now villified the Shah as a "blood sucker" and American stooge. Khomeini demanded the former monarch's return to Iran to face trial and execution for his alleged misdeeds. Once the Shah's treatment had finished, the American government, eager to avoid further controversy sent Pahlavi out of the country. He eventually settled in Egypt, where he remained until his death on July 27, 1980.

The last shah of Iran was married three times.

His first wife was Princess Fawzia of Egypt (born: November 5, 1921), the dazzlingly beautiful daughter of King Fuad I of Egypt and his wife, Nazli Sabri, and a sister of the notorious King Farouk I of Egypt; they married in 1939 and divorced in 1948, after her failure to produce an heir to the throne. They had one daughter, Shahnaz Pahlavi (born: October 27, 1940).

His second wife was Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari (June 22, 1932-October 26, 2001), daughter of Khalil Esfandiary Bakhtiari, Ambassador of Iran to the Federal Republic of Germany, and his German wife, Eva Karl; they were married in 1951 and divorced in 1958 when it became apparent that she could not bear children. (Given the title Princess Soraya of Iran after the divorce, she later became a film actress, appearing the 1965 movie "Three Faces of a Woman," and mistress of its Italian director Franco Indovina, 1932-1972.) The shah's third wife was Farah Diba (born: October 14, 1938), daughter of Sohrab Diba, Capt., Imperial Iranian Army, and his wife, Faredeh Gothbi. They were married in 1959, and Farah was created Shahbanu, or empress, a title created especially for her (previous royal wives had been known as Malika, or queen); she bore him four children:
Cyrus Reza (born: October 31, 1960)
Yasmina Farahnaz (born: March 12, 1963)
Ali-Reza Pahlavi (born: April 28, 1966)
Leila Pahlavi (March 27, 1970 - June 10, 2001)
 
Hello,
This week marks the 25th anniversary of His Majesty the Shah Reza Pahlavi's death. I invite you to post here all the pictures you have of Him and also the pictures that wil be taken on the occasion of the commemmoration in The Cayro of this sad event.
Sol
 

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1.- 2. Last days at Cairo Hospital.
3.- The Funeral
 

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and Remembering the Shah.
 

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I am sure Shahnaz attended the funeral. She was, after all, his eldest daughter.
 
No news

It's curious that this year, very special because is the 25 anniversary of the Shah's death, there are no news about the commemoration of this sad event. Other years we had more pics and information.

grecka said:
I am sure Shahnaz attended the funeral. She was, after all, his eldest daughter.
 
thanks for opening this thread, it is a shame that, princess shahnaz has never really been included as a full member of the family, look at the jordanian royal family ,despite being from FOUR different mothers they all show a united front in public.princess shahnaz is briefly and discreetly introduced in both the empress and crown prince's web site, and there is no mention of her children at all, after all they are late shah's grand children too and one must not forget that their blood is thick with royalty since they are also decendants of the egyptian royal family and also qajar royal family too...
 
Perhaps she does'nt want to be included with the Royal family. she definitely does keep quite a distance form them. Though surprising no mention is made of her at the funeral. And one would think she would atleast visit her own father's grave, perhaps she does this discreetly outside the public eye unlike her step mother and haf siblings.
 
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When the Reza and Fawzia divorced, Shahnaz had to stay in Iran and rarely saw her mother from then on out(once or twice in Switzerland in later years). Shahnaz was deemed virtually invisible by her father after Fawzia's departure.

As you might expect, she had an extremely dysfunctional and emotionally neglected childhood, and it carried into her adulthood. She developed heavy drug problems and went through a series of lovers and stormy relationships and a suicide attempt or two. The Shah threatened to disown her many times, only to be talked out of it by officials(most notably C.M. Alan) and Reza married her off for a political alliance. They divorced a few years later.

Eventually Reza got really tired of her and said demanded that she either immediately leave the country, change her lifestyle, get disowned or marry quietly in Switzerland coming back to Iran only when given permission. She picked the third option.

Apparently, she's still in Switzerland with her second husband and children, and now devoutly religious.
 
Well done Shahnaz! Good for you! may you have all the happiness that Allah S.W.T. intends for you.:)
 
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I also heard that Shahnza changes her name to something more muslim

I think Princess Farahnza looks quite ill or maybe she is just very thin.
 
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Alicky said:
She developed heavy drug problems and went through a series of lovers and stormy relationships and a suicide attempt or two. The Shah threatened to disown her many times, only to be talked out of it by officials(most notably C.M. Alan) and Reza married her off for a political alliance. They divorced a few years later.
Eventually Reza got really tired of her and said demanded that she either immediately leave the country, change her lifestyle, get disowned or marry quietly in Switzerland coming back to Iran only when given permission. She picked the third option.
Apparently, she's still in Switzerland with her second husband and children, and now devoutly religious.
:eek: what's the source of this?this is the first time I'm reading such things about her.
for always I've read that from the very begining she was quite religious,and those who were against Shah always appreciated her and wrote to her to complain.she's always described as the only one with clean hands and past in shah's family.
actually she got married too young to be invovled in stormy relationships.she was only 16.
 
Where did you hear otherwise? What books did you get to read I mean. (I'd like to expand my Iranian library!) Personally, I don't get to hear a lot about Shahnaz, but everything I've ever read resembles what I wrote. I didn't know she was sixteen when she married, but I didn't say that she had her stormy relationships before she was married anyway.
 
well from various sources...specificaly from book written by General Hussein Fardoost.in his book he talks of a letter mullahs wrote to Shahnaz to complain about shah and his desicions against Islam addressing shahnaz as the only religious royalty who has always paid attention to islamic values and their only hope to make shah attention too and... if there was any rumor about her they wouldnt write such a letter to her.
General Fardoost was shah's most trusted friend.they became friends at the age of six,and were always together through school and all their lives.
the reason why she was pushed behind was the fear Farah had about her past being told,though shahnaz was hurt very much she kept silent about it and when the secret was revealed she only didnt deny it and got divorced.
ps.if shah had any concern about relationships of people in his circle he'd have to sent his sister away who was a famous sex nuts.it's told that every night she slept with a diffrent male star or a sportman.
 
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As far as his sister, I guess you mean Princess Ashraf lol, I don't think the Shah would have ever stood up to her. Not only were they very close, but I don't think anyone would have stood up to Princess Ashraf. Plus, people say that he would have been lost (politically and emotionally) without her.

And Reza's Court Minister Asadollah Alam (another trusted friend) tells the same story I did. Shahnaz apparently did become very religious, I'm not sure when the change took over, do you think Fardoost wrote this after the change?
 
What past was Farah trying to hide??
 
Alicky said:
And Reza's Court Minister Asadollah Alam (another trusted friend) tells the same story I did. Shahnaz apparently did become very religious, I'm not sure when the change took over, do you think Fardoost wrote this after the change?
yea he wrote his book after the revolution.another good source is the book written by Ahmad,Anssari Farah's cousin.I highly recommend it.

iowabelle said:
What past was Farah trying to hide??
she had an affair(not a loving affiar of course)with by Ardeshir Zahedi (shahnaz's husband) to earn her living expenses.

this picture https://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=174213
isnt certainly from shah's funeral.because the man in middle in Hoveida,the prime minister who at the time of death of Mohammad Reza was eighter jailed or killed.
 
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cute_girl said:
she had an affair(not a loving affiar of course)with by Ardeshir Zahedi (shahnaz's husband) to earn her living expenses.

I never heard that before. I thought she was a student or something when the Shah picked her out.
 
in all the books written by Shah's generals and friends you can read this story.
she was a student and engaged to her cousin who supported her,once she started seeing another man he stopped supporting her,so she left paris for a while to do something for her living(her father was dead and hadnt left anything but loans and her mom was a tailor).
in Tehran she was told that General Zahedi is very generous to girls who surrender themselves to him,as a last resort she tried that.
Zahedi and his father were very powerful and had helped shah a lot in coup-detat and shah was supposed to be indebted to them,actually he was a weak man who didnt want to admit this and the fact that the he couldnt make right desicions without help of them.also he was jealous that CIA trusted Zahedi more and besides he'd kept shah's daughter as a hostage!and that weakend shah's postion more and more.
on the other side Zahedi didnt like the ignorence and selfishness of Shah,after a quarrel,to ruin his false pride,he decided to humiliate him with choosing shah a wife who'd slept with Zahedi before,so he interduced the two to each other,and pushed shah into this marriage by saying that "this girl isnt from a noble family like your previous wives so isnt going to expect much of you and will be a homebody person,wont nagg if you have misstresses,wont interfere with your decisions,will have no power and will only bring up her children.she isnt beautifull so the chances of her having affair with other men is less,poor people wont rebel against you if you marry on of them..."so shah accepted.Zahedi was the worst of husbands,threatening Shahnaz to death if she opens her mouth.
during years very geniunly Zahedi spread the secret through courtiers and army generals,and as one night in a party in his villa named Hesarak he'd shown Farah to his friends,everyone started to whisper about Farah,soon she became unpopluar.
Shah begged him to go away and to divorce her daughter,Zahedi who had insulted Shah in the best way possible agreed and left for USA as an ambassador with a winning smile.
this the brief story of what I've heard and read.
 
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Regarding: " this picture http://www.theroyalforums.com/forum...chmentid=174213
isnt certainly from shah's funeral.because the man in middle in Hoveida,the prime minister who at the time of death of Mohammad Reza was eighter jailed or killed."

The man in the middle is former US president Richard Nixon. An yes he was at the funeral.
 
I was glad to find this thread. As a Texan myself, the Shah's death was sad (and well remembered) because he had been treated in San Antonio prior to his death. I hope he and his wife were comfortable for the short time they were here...

I believe a year later, his son and heir trained in Texas....

What was the name of the book his sister Asraf wrote? Is she still alive?
 
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