Farah Pahlavi
Farah Pahlavi (born October 14, 1938 in Tehran , Iran ; Persian فرح پهلوی, DMG Faraḥ-e Pahlawī , b. Farah Diba فرح دیبا, DMG Faraḥ-e Dībā ) became Queen on December 21, 1959 through her marriage to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and through her coronation on October 26, 1967 as Empress of Iran ( Shahbanu ). Farah Pahlavi's family on his father's side is of Azerbaijani origin.
Childhood and school
Farah Diba was born on October 14, 1938, the only child of Sohrab Diba and Farideh Ghotbi. Her paternal grandfather was the Persian ambassador to Russia and the Netherlands .
Her father, Sohrab Diba, began training at the cadet school in Saint Petersburg , but broke it off after the October Revolution in 1917 and fled to France. There he graduated from school and studied law until he was accepted at the French Military Academy in St-Cyr . After returning to Iran, he served as an officer in the new army under construction under Reza Shah . In 1948 he died of cancer. Her mother, Farideh, was from Gilan Province .
After her father's death, Farah grew up under the care of her mother and uncle Mohammad Ali Ghotbi. First Farah attended the Italian school in Tehran, as her father wanted. She later moved to the Jeanne-d'Arc School, a French school run by nuns. She became the team leader on the school's basketball team and won the Tehran championship for three consecutive years. In 1953 Farah Diba became Iranian youth champion in high jump . She joined the Girl Scouts at the Joan of Arc School . With the Girl Scouts she went on her first trip abroad in 1956, which took her to France.
From the Jeanne-d'Arc-Schule she moved to the French-speaking Razi-Gymnasium in the south of Tehran, which she graduated with the Abitur as the best in class.
Study, marriage and marriage
Farah Diba moved from Tehran to Paris to study in 1957, where she matriculated at the École Spéciale d'Architecture .
In the spring of 1959, she first met Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had come to Paris on a state visit. The Iranian ambassador had invited some Iranian students to the embassy to introduce them to the Shah. Farah Diba was among those students. After several invitations to the Shah's palace, the engagement was officially announced on November 21, 1959, around a year and a half after the Shah's divorce from Empress Soraya .
The Imam Djome held the wedding ceremony on December 21, 1959 in the Marble Palace. Just ten months after the wedding, Farah Pahlavi gave birth to the Shah on October 31, 1960, the heir to the throne, Cyrus Reza . The marriage resulted in three more children: Farahnaz (born March 12, 1963), Ali Reza (born April 28, 1966 - † January 4, 2011) and Leila (* March 27, 1970 † June 10, 2001).
Official duties
In addition to raising the children, Farah Pahlavi also took on official duties. She was in front of numerous medical, educational and social associations as well as cultural and sports associations. Her main area of responsibility included health care, upbringing and education, social affairs and the maintenance of cultural and historical customs. She also dealt with environmental issues and the development of traditional handicrafts and rural small-scale industries. In addition to the patronage of individual organizations and associations, Farah Pahlavi took over the chairmanship of foundations and state companies that fell into the area she oversees.
Farah Pahlavi had his own office, which over the years grew to 40 employees. The office was divided into four departments: Medicine and Health, Education, Art and Culture, and Social Affairs. The individual projects were mostly financed by the Pahlavi Foundation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Farah Pahlavi Foundation, the National Oil Company (NIOC) and donations from industry and the private sector.
Farah Pahlavi was also involved in planning the 2500th anniversary of the Iranian monarchy , with which the Pahlavi dynasty reached its political climax in 1971.
Healthcare
One of her first activities in the health sector is her commitment to lepers with the establishment of the village of Behkadeh Raji in 1961. The village was established as a central village leprosy station to enable lepers of Iran to live a decent life and to receive adequate medical care. Up until this point in time, the leprosy sufferers lived a completely isolated life in decentralized wards and received inadequate medical care. The recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) experts in Geneva to send cured lepers back to their village could not be implemented, as an illness with leprosy meant the entire family was expelled from the village community. In Behkadeh Raji they were able to build a new existence with their families, which was connected with a life perspective even after overcoming illness. The poet Forugh Farochzad made a moving film about this village of lepers, titled Chaneh siah ast (“The house is black”), which won the 1963 Grand Prix of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival .
The Kongereh Pezeschki-e Iran (Medical Congress Iran), founded in 1951 , dealt with the diseases particularly prevalent in Iran. The congress carried out medical research projects and organized the exchange of information with foreign medical experts. The work of the congress was financed by the Pahlavi Foundation. Farah Pahlavi took over the chairmanship of the congress. Every year the Congress met in Ramsar ( Mazandaran ). Medical management was carried out by Iranian doctors from state medical institutions and the army selected by Congress. Congress maintained a technical committee of medical specialists that organized and oversaw the medical programs.
In March 1963, the Jamiyat-e Melli-e Mobarezeh ba Saratan (National Society for the Fight against Cancer) was founded under the auspices of Farah Pahlavi . The company established 34 diagnostic centers with a treatment offering for outpatient treatment of cancer patients. The centers were equipped with cytodiagnostic departments . A department assigned to the Ministry of Health developed a counseling service for the treatment of cervical cancer . A center for skin cancer and mucosal cancer was established at Tehran University . In addition, the company established a central rehabilitation clinic for cancer patients in Tehran.
In 1965, under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi, the Society for the Rescue of Burn Injuries (Jamiyat-e Hemayat Asibdidegan az Suchtegi) was founded. The aim was to build a medical center for the care of burn victims . With the funds raised by the company, it was possible to build a special hospital as a center for the care of burn victims. In addition to a department for the care of burn injuries, the center also had its own research department and a department for training in first aid measures for burn injuries. The company built other smaller hospitals and departments, especially in cities with a high proportion of industry. As part of her sister training, she offered special courses for caring for burn victims.
The Jamiyat-e Tarafdaran-e Markaz-e Teb-e Kudakan (Society for the Promotion of Pediatrics ) was founded in November 1966 under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi at the suggestion of the doctors Mohammad Gharib and Hasan Ahary. Gharib and Ahary had the plan to set up a pediatric center in Iran as early as 1958. Lacking financial means both turned to Farah Pahlavi, who founded the Society for the Promotion of Pediatrics, to raise funds for the construction and permanent operation of a pediatric center. The society was led by representatives of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, the Rector of Tehran University and the Dean of the Medical Faculty of Tehran University. The center has six departments and 150 beds and is still part of the Medical Faculty of the University of Tehran.
In 1970, the Bonyad-e Irani Behdascht-e Jahani (Iranian Foundation for World Health) was founded under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi . The aim of the foundation was to coordinate the cooperation between the Iranian medical sector and the World Health Organization (WHO). The foundation also served to raise funds from domestic and foreign industries and private institutions to fund projects in the Iranian health sector.
Child and Youth Services
The child and youth services in Iran was initially understood as a purely charitable activity. It was not until the beginning of the 1960s that Farah Pahlavi systematically expanded child and youth welfare as part of voluntary welfare and as a state task. The Farah Pahlavi Foundation (dschamiyat-e chayriyeh Farah Pahlavi) , the Red Lion with the Red Sun Society of Iran , the Society for the Support of Mothers and Babies (bongah hemayat madaran va nozadan) should be mentioned in particular. , the Society for the Support of Orphans (Jamiyat-e Hemayat-e Kudakan-e bi Sarparast) and the National Society for the Support of Children (andschoman-e melli-e hemadschat-e kudakan) . Farah Pahlavi sponsored the construction of orphanages for nearly 10,000 orphans nationwide and founded the first technical school for kindergarten teachers to replace the previous makeshift care with an education program for orphans. The Center for Vocational Education (Kanun-e Kaaramuzi-e Keschvar) was founded in 1959 under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi in order to provide young people and adults without school education with career prospects .
The Sasman-e Melli-e Pischahangi Dochtaran (National Organization of Female Scouts) was founded in 1953. The aim of the organization was the mental and physical development of girls and young women between the ages of 7 and 20 according to the rules of the scout movement . The organization was under the supervision of the National Organization of Scouts of Iran. As a young girl, Farah Diba had been a member of the Boy Scout organization. After marrying Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, she took over the patronage of the female scout organization. The organization was a member of the International Scout Movement. The 10th Asia-Pacific Scout Conference took place in October 1976 and the 23rd World Conference of Female Scouts in Tehran in September 1978.
In 1965, the Reza Pahlavi School for the Blind (Amuzeschgah-e Nabinayan-e Reza Pahlavi) was founded under the auspices of Farah Pahlavi. This school was responsible for both education and vocational training for the blind. The school was equipped with a dormitory in which half of the students were offered accommodation. The students were registered with the school directly by the families of the children concerned, through town halls or other charitable organizations such as the Lions Club. The school's courses were geared towards the special skills of the blind. In addition to general school education courses, typewriter and craft courses were also offered. In addition to training for children, the school also offered courses for adults.
The Sports Association for the Deaf and the Mute (Federation-e Varzeschiy-e Kar va Lalha) , founded in 1956 under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi, was dedicated to the sporting education of the deaf and the dumb. The focus was on training in wrestling and table tennis. On August 17, 1969, the Iranian team took part in the Deaflympics in Belgrade .
Education, art and culture
The association she founded to promote the intellectual abilities of children and adolescents ( Kanun-e Parvaresch-e Fekri-e Kudakan va no-Dschavanan) began with the development of an independent Iranian children's book culture by promoting book authors and illustrators, and building children's libraries and mobile libraries, the establishment of a traveling theater, the development of a children's cultural program with courses in music, drama and handicrafts, as well as an 8 mm cinema workshop, through to the establishment of a children's film festival. In this context, the first world fairy tale book “Friends”, published in Germany in 1968, was created .
Farah Pahlavi paid particular attention to promoting the Persian language . In 1964, for example, she founded the Bonyad-e Farhang-e Iran (Foundation for Iranian Culture) headed by Parwiz Natel Chanlari and massively built the already existing Bongah-e Tarjomeh va Nashr-e Ketab (public law institution for the translation and publication of books) out.
In 1963 Farah Pahlavi took over the patronage of the Anjoman-e Filarmonik Tehran (Philharmonic Orchestra Tehran) , which was founded in 1953 , which led to direct financial support from Farah Pahlavi's office. With these donations, Heshmat Sanjari was able to lead the Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra to its first heyday from 1963 to 1972. At that time the orchestra played with and under the direction of international musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin , Zubin Mehta , Isaac Stern and Herbert von Karajan . The opera orchestra and the symphony orchestra separated. The orchestra gave concerts not only in Tehran, but also in Abadan and Shiraz . In the late 1960s over 700 concerts with foreign and Iranian conductors were performed.
To promote cultural relations between Iran and abroad, the Andschoman-e Melli-e Ravabet-e Farhangi (National Society for Cultural Relations) was founded in 1967 . Farah Pahlavi took over the chairmanship of the society. The society invited famous foreign artists and authors to Iran and financed their stay in Iran through grants. Artists from India, Mexico, the Soviet Union and Turkey were particularly supported. The society financed exhibitions and performances abroad for Iranian artists. The establishment of Persian-language book collections abroad was also funded.
In 1967, at the suggestion of Farah Pahlavi, the Shiraz Art Festival was founded. The Shiraz Art Festival was the first and only modern art festival in Iran. His focus was on the presentation of electronic music and avant-garde art in the fields of music, dance and theater. It took place from 1967 to 1977 in the city of Shiraz and in front of the ruins of Persepolis . The festival received worldwide attention. In addition to Iranian artists, artists from Western cultures such as Iannis Xenakis , Peter Brook , John Cage , Gordon Mumma , David Tudor , Karlheinz Stockhausen and Merce Cunningham were also represented.
In May 1967, at the suggestion of Farah Pahlavi, the National Organization for Iranian Folklore (Sazeman-e Folklor-e Melli-e Iran) was founded in order to maintain Iranian folk music, folk dances and the tradition of village culture. A special school for folk music and folk dance was established, teaching the basics of local and national dances and music. The graduates were sent to primary schools and villages to teach dance and music to children. National performances took place in Tehran in the Rudaki Hall built in 1968 and later in all of the country's larger cities. Attached to the school was a research facility that collected information on folk culture, in particular clothing, dances, music, stories and painting, and evaluated it for teaching purposes. The national ensemble has also performed in Turkey and Pakistan.
In order to make theatrical performances possible in Tehran, the construction of the Schahr Theater was commissioned by Farah Pahlavi in 1967 . The theater opened on January 27, 1973 with the play The Cherry Orchard by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov , directed by Arie Avanesian, in the presence of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi.
For concerts, opera and ballet performances, the Talar-e Rudaki opera and concert hall (Rudaki Hall) was built in 1968 on the initiative of Farah Pahlavi . In addition to concerts by Iranian artists, numerous performances took place with the participation of internationally leading musicians and conductors such as Henryk Szeryng , Claudio Arrau and Herbert von Karajan . The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic played, among others . In addition, opera and ballet performances by internationally known ensembles and performances by the pantomime Marcel Marceau took place in the Rudaki Hall.
On July 14, 1975, the opening event of the literary festival founded by Farah Pahlavi took place in Tus in the hometown of Abū l-Qāsem-e Ferdowsī . On the one hand, the poet of the Iranian national epic Shahnameh should be honored. On the other hand, the world public should be made aware of the literary tradition of the place and the country. The festival, with its parallel literary congresses, its exhibitions of Persian miniature painting and its public performances, became an integral part of the festivals taking place in Iran.
At Farah Pahlavi's instigation, numerous museums were founded in Iran, including the Iranian Carpet Museum , the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Iranian Museum of Glass and Ceramics .
The American Institute for Persian Art and Archeology , founded in New York in 1925 by Arthur Pope , was transferred to the Pahlavi University of Shiraz in 1966 as the Institute for Asian Studies (Moaseseh Asiai-e Daneschgah-e Pahlavi Schiraz) . The institute was housed in a historical building that had been built by Ali Mohammad Khan Qavam al Molk in 1888 and which Shahram Qavam had donated to the Institute for Asian Studies. The building is considered one of the most beautiful buildings of the Qajar dynasty and is located in a 3,500 m² citrus garden (Narendschestan). Farah Pahlavi's office took over the restoration of the building and the garden and expanded it into a scientific institute with a museum (Muzeh Schahram). The building houses the entire Arthur Pope library, which includes 10,140 books on Persian history, social and cultural development. The building also houses Arthur Pope's archive with over 20,000 photos and slides, a photo laboratory and an archaeological laboratory.
In 1973, under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi, the Andschoman-e Shahanshahi-e Falsafeh (Royal Academy of Philosophy) was founded by Hossein Nasr . Hossein Nasr took over the management of the academy. Other members were Ehsan Naraghi , Abdolhossein Zarinkub , Mohsen Foroughi, Nader Naderpour and Seyyed Jalal Aschtiani.
On April 19, 1975, Farah Pahlavi University was founded. The university is the only university in Iran that only allows women to study.
Urban planning
Farah Pahlavi was chairman of the 1965 founded council for urban development Schoraye Aali Schahrsazi , which was located in the housing ministry . The council had the task of coordinating urban planning, urban development and urban beautification in Iran. The aim was to steer construction activity in the cities through development plans in an orderly manner. The council paid particular attention to the preservation of old, historical buildings, the establishment of parks and the architecturally sophisticated redesign of official buildings. In Tehran, for example, the Park-e Farah , the Park SchahanSchahi and the Parke-e Sangi-e Jamschidieh were laid out according to plans by the Council for Urban Development. The construction of the Shahyad Tower was also under the supervision of Farah Pahlavi.
Inspection trips
Several times a year Farah Pahlavi made long trips to distant provinces of Iran to find out about the status of social and cultural development projects. Farah Pahlavi wanted to get to know the needs and situation of the Iranians in all provinces from his own experience. During these trips she collected input from the population and tried to convert the suggestions made by the population into development projects.
Farah Pahlavi made the first trip after the birth of her third child to Sistan and Balochistan in December 1965. Her next trip took her in October 1966 to the province of Hormozgan on the Persian Gulf . After their visit, the old cisterns and water reservoirs were replaced by a modern water supply. The old storage buildings were not demolished, but carefully renovated and converted into museums, craft workshops, theaters, shops, an aquarium and libraries. A new television building in the style of the local architecture was built in Bandar Abbas , which later received an architecture award from the Aga Khan Foundation . Farah Pahlavi's office took over the planning and coordination.
In 1973 Farah Pahlavi visited Buschehr in the province of the same name to witness the start of planning work for the construction of the first Iranian nuclear power plant. In the province of Kerman , Farah Pahlavi's office managed 112 development projects.
State visits
As a rule, Farah Pahlavi accompanied the Shah on state visits, just as she was usually present when visiting state guests in Iran. In 1961, the Shah and Farah Pahlavi visited Sweden in May and President Charles de Gaulle in France in October . On this occasion, Farah and André Malraux opened an exhibition in Paris on 7,000 years of Iranian art and laid the foundation stone for a residence hall for Iranian students in Paris. In 1962 the Shah and Farah Pahlavi traveled to the United States to see President John F. Kennedy .
In mid-May 1965 the Shah and Farah went on a trip to South America, which began with a state visit to Brazil and continued with a visit to some Latin American states. On the return journey via Canada, the Shah and Farah visited General De Gaulle in Paris at the end of May.
In 1967 a visit to the Federal Republic of Germany was planned. Before this state visit, the journalist and later terrorist Ulrike Meinhof had drawn attention to the misery in Iran in an open letter to Farah Diba. With this letter Meinhof responded to an article in the magazine Neue Revue , in which Farah Pahlavi had drawn her country from a more beautiful side. During demonstrations during the state visit on June 2, 1967, there were violent riots between demonstrators, Iranian security forces and German police in West Berlin , during which the student Benno Ohnesorg was shot by the police officer and Stasi agent Karl-Heinz Kurras . A state visit to Ankara , Turkey, followed on July 7, 1967 .
In 1968 the Shah and Farah Pahlavi were received one more time by President Charles de Gaulle in France. From September 24th to October 5th, 1968 the Shah and Farah Pahlavi made a state visit to the Soviet Union . Before traveling to the Soviet Union, they met US President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington.
On April 25, 1969, Farah Pahlavi and André Malraux opened the Iran-Haus , an Iranian cultural institute, on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The Iran House is still open today and houses an Iranian restaurant.
In July 1970, the Shah and Farah Pahlavi visited several European countries, including France, Finland , the Netherlands and Belgium . A visit to Canada followed in 1971 . On June 28, 1971, Farah Pahlavi was received by French President Georges Pompidou in Paris. On October 28, 1970, the Shah and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi visited General Secretary Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev in the Soviet Union. The result of the visit was an agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline between Iran and the Soviet Union in order to supply the southern republics of the Soviet Union with Iranian gas.
On September 17, 1972, the Shah and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi met with Zhou Enlai in China, after President Richard Nixon had previously visited China in February 1972. In July 1973, the Shah and Farah Pahlavi met with President Nixon in the United States. In 1974 the Shah and Farah Pahlavi visited Singapore , Australia and New Zealand on their first official overseas trip to Southeast Asia . In the same year, a state visit to President Giscard d'Estaing in France followed. During this visit, agreement was reached on cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy .
In 1976, Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi went to Senegal . There she laid the foundation stone for the construction of a refinery, which was built with the support of Iran. From November 14 to 18, 1977, Farah Pahlavi accompanied the Shah to the United States on her last official trip abroad to meet President Jimmy Carter . Jimmy Carter returned this visit to Tehran on December 31, 1977, giving his now famous speech in which he described Iran as an “island of stability”.
Titular promotion and coronation as empress
Since his marriage to the Shah, Farah officially had the title Malekeh , a word of Arabic origin meaning "queen". With a decree of March 20, 1961, the Shah gave her the new title of Shahbanu (Eng: "Wife of the Shah"). The word "Schahbanu" has Persian roots and comes from Persian literature and history. The decision to create this new title had two reasons. On the one hand, the title should emphasize the Iranian identity of the ruler. On the other hand, the position of women in Iranian society in general should be upgraded with the new title.
On August 23, 1967, a newly elected constituent assembly passed a constitutional amendment that reorganized the succession to the throne. The minimum age at which the Crown Prince could succeed the Shah was set at 20 years. If the Crown Prince has not yet reached this age, Farah Pahlavi will be regent until the Crown Prince is of legal age. This constitutional change amounted to a paradigm shift in Persian society.
On October 26, 1967, his 48th birthday, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowned his wife Farah Pahlavi. A new crown was specially made for Farah . With the coronation Farah Pahlavi was awarded the position of Nayeb-al-Saltaneh (viceroy) by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi according to the Iranian constitution . This meant that in the Shah's absence she could take his position and act in his place.
After the coronation ceremony, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi declared:
“From the moment I wear the crown of the world's oldest monarchy and also for the first time in history a Shahbanu of Iran was crowned, I feel closer than ever to my beloved and honorable people. I wish and pray that Almighty God will protect this land more than ever. "
According to the official work that Farah Pahlavi had done up to this point, it was proven for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi that his wife Farah could take this position on an equal footing. With the coronation of Farah Pahlavi, all Iranian women and their achievement in building the country should be honored. Their position in Iranian society should also be on an equal footing with that of men.
The new family law
On October 24, 1967, Senator Manuchehrian introduced a new family law into the Senate, in the preparation of which Aschraf Pahlavi , the twin sister of the Shah, and Farah Pahlavi were involved. This law gave women in Iran extensive rights, including filing a divorce suit at any time . Conversely, men were deprived of the right to divorce their wives by religious decision at their own discretion without going to court. According to the religious laws of the country, the man was forbidden from marrying a second woman as long as the court-confirmed declaration of consent of the first woman was not available and as long as he could not credibly prove that he could care for both women equally. Completely new was the possibility for the family court to grant custody of the mother's children in the event of a divorce, if this required the children's best interests. Until now, custody of a divorce was automatically given to the man. The court was also able to determine the amount of maintenance to be paid by the man.
In order to preserve the Islamic understanding of law, according to which a marriage is merely a contract between a man and a woman that regulates married life together, according to the new family law, certain pension provisions after a divorce had to be included in the marriage contract. This made a contractual exclusion of alimony payments after a divorce impossible. Khomeini , at the time in Najaf , violently contradicted this law:
“The illegal parliament recently passed a law officially known as the Law for the Protection of the Family. But his intention is to destroy a Muslim's family. The law is against Islam, and both legislators and those who apply this law are sinners and violate Sharia law. "
Overthrow of the Shah
The year 1978 marked a turning point in the political conflict with the Shah's opponents. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had already initiated a policy of liberalization in 1977, which was described as "opening up political space".
In August 1978 the Islamist opposition was supposed to use the opening of the political arena in a special way. On August 19, 1978, there were 28 arson attacks on the country's cinemas, which Khomeini had castigated as centers of prostitution. The arson attack on Cinema Rex in Abadan left over 400 dead. Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi wanted to go to Abadan immediately to visit the families of the victims and express their condolences. Prime Minister Jamjid Amusegar thought it would be better to wait for the results of the investigation first. The result was further demonstrations across the country. Iranian students occupied the Iranian embassies in Germany, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands.
On August 27, 1978, Amusegar resigned. In choosing a new prime minister, Farah Pahlavi proposed Houchang Nahavandi, an economist and former rector of Tehran University, to the Shah. However, the Shah chose Jafar Sharif-Emami . However, the change of government did not bring about the calming of the political situation that the Shah had hoped for. On Friday, September 8, 1978, which went down in Iranian history as Black Friday , the political situation deteriorated further. On Jaleh Square in downtown Tehran, soldiers tried to stop a demonstration by shooting in the air. Trained and armed agitators in Libya and Palestine had joined the march of demonstrators to stir up the mood. In the subsequent exchanges of fire on Jaleh Square, 64 demonstrators and 70 police officers and soldiers were killed.
The dramatic political events of Black Friday were overshadowed by a natural disaster, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that almost completely destroyed the oasis city of Tabas in central Iran. Over 20,000 people were killed. Farah Pahlavi flew to Tabas and was confronted by the angry population with the rumor that the American military, with the Shah's approval, had carried out an underground atomic bomb test near Tabas and thus triggered the quake. Others sought the "wrath of God" as the cause. On the evening of November 5, 1978, Jafar Sharif-Emami resigned as Prime Minister.
After Sharif-Emami's resignation, a military government should ensure peace and order. General Oveisi was shortlisted. Farah Pahlavi was against Oveisi, who was responsible for the shots in Jaleh Square. The Shah eventually chose General Gholam Reza Azhari . Azhari was the first to arrest former long-time prime minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda . Farah Pahlavi was present at the crucial meeting at which the arrest of Hoveyda was decided, but "did not speak to speak out against the decision". With the arrest of Hoveyda, they wanted to present the opposition with someone responsible who went to prison without hesitation. Hoveyda had nothing to blame and was expecting a later acquittal. Among the others arrested were Manutschehr Azmun, former Minister without Portfolio, Dariush Humayun, former Minister for Information and Tourism, Mansur Ruhani, former Minister of Agriculture, General Nassiri , former head of SAVAK , Manutschehr Nikpay, former Mayor of Tehran, Lieutenant General Sadri, former police chief of Tehran, Abdulazim Valian, former governor of Khorasan , Schaychulislam Zadeh, former health minister, Nili Aram, former Deputy Minister of Health and Fereidun Mahdavi, a former economy minister. Khomeini commented on the arrests from his exile in Paris with the words
“Now they choose a different route. They arrest those who until recently were the Shah's criminal accomplices. Some of you helped him in all of his crimes for twelve or thirteen years. They arrest the accomplices to protect the real criminal. "
On November 18, 1978 Farah Pahlavi traveled with her daughter Farahnaz and her son Ali-Reza to Karbala and Najaf to meet with Grand Ayatollah Abu l-Qasim al-Choei . Choei gave Farah Pahlavi a ring with engraved prayers for the Shah and told her "that he would pray for his success in the service of Islam and Iran."
But the Islamic Revolution seemed unstoppable. The leading figure was Ayatollah Khomeini who was deported from long-term Iraqi exile on October 6, 1978 to Neauphle-le-Château near Paris . In Paris, Khomeini formed an alliance between sections of the clergy, the left-wing intellectual opposition, and the Marxist-Leninist and Maoist groups whose common goal was the overthrow of the Shah.
In late December, Azhari resigned as prime minister after suffering a heart attack. On December 28, 1978, Mohammad Reza asked Shah Shapur Bakhtiar to form a new government. But instead of governing, the National Front board excluded its board colleague and Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar from the party. For them he had become a traitor because he worked with Mohammad Reza Shah. They had already agreed with Khomeini that they would only support a government under his leadership, a decision they would later regret bitterly.
From 4 January to 7 January 1979 the French President at the invitation Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in Guadeloupe , the Conference of Guadeloupe instead. It was decided that the West would no longer support the Shah and that discussions should be sought with his political opponent Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . The conference was attended by the host Giscard d'Estaing from France, President Jimmy Carter from the USA, Prime Minister James Callaghan from Great Britain and Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt from the Federal Republic of Germany. The French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was charged with establishing contact with Khomeini and discussing the question of a possible change of government.
At noon on January 16, 1979, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi left the country via the Tehran airport. Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile in France on February 1, 1979.
to live abroad
- Egypt
The Shah planned to go to the United States after visiting President Sadat in Egypt . In the United States, he wanted to explain to President Carter, Congress, and the American people what grave political mistake they are making in Iran. President Sadat welcomed the Shah as a state guest and urged him to stay in Egypt: “Egypt is closer to Iran. It is an Islamic country. A lot can be done from here. Order your planes to Egypt to start a powerful resistance movement against Khomeini. "
On January 18, 1979, President Carter declared that the war in Vietnam had taught the United States not to interfere in any country's internal affairs. Khomeini, in turn, had declared the Bakhtiar government, parliament and the Senate illegal after his return and installed Mehdi Bāzargān as prime minister of the transition.
The Shah's children have already been to the United States. Cyrus Reza trained as a pilot in the USA, Farahnaz studied there and Leila and Ali Reza were brought from Tehran in a military transport to Lubbock Air Force Base near San Antonio (Texas). The Shah also wanted to travel to the USA, but this time King Hassan II persuaded him to come to Morocco.
- Morocco
On January 22, 1979, the Shah and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi traveled from Cairo to Marrakech . After Prime Minister Bakhtiar, who was still appointed by the Shah, fled his official residence from the Khomeini militias on February 11, 1979, the Shah ordered his plane Shahin , with which he had left Iran, to return with the words "It belongs to the Iranian people" Tehran.
On February 22, 1979, the Shah turned to Richard Parker, the US ambassador to Morocco, to inform him that he was now planning to travel to the United States in the coming week to stay there permanently. The US government then sent a security officer to the Shah, who informed him that the invitation issued by President Carter to the USA continued, but that his security could not be guaranteed and that legal action by the new rulers in Iran or against could not be guaranteed Congressional resolutions directed at him have to count on if he is a private person in the USA. King Hassan had indicated to the Shah that he could no longer stay in Morocco, whereupon the Shah contacted a number of other governments, but to no avail.
For the Persian New Year, March 21st, the children from the USA came to Morocco. The Shah's twin sister, Princess Aschraf, and Ardeschir Zahedi , Iran's ambassador to the United States, had also come to decide where the Shah should live. After President Carter's final decision on March 17 that the Shah could not come to the United States, David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger agreed to act as a liaison between the Shah and the US government. With their support, the Bahamas government agreed to allow the Shah's family to stay for three months.
- Bahamas
On March 30, 1979, the Shah, Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi arrived in the Bahamas with three children and guards. The government-approved residence turned out to be a small villa that offered little space for the ten-person tour group. The Bahamas turned out to be a poor choice for an extended stay. The Bahamas government refused to renew the three-month residence permit.
- Mexico
From the Bahamas it went to Cuernavaca in Mexico . There, however, the Shah's health deteriorated dramatically.
- United States
On October 22, 1979, the Shah and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi, with the approval of President Carter, traveled to the United States for medical treatment for the Shah's cancer. Her first stay was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Since they did not have a visa, they were not allowed to leave the plane. Customs officers came on board and confiscated food they had carried. After the formalities were done, the onward flight to New York could take place. The Shah immediately went to the hospital to begin his treatment. During the Shah's hospital stay in Tehran, on November 4, 1979, the American embassy was occupied and Tehran was taken hostage . After Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan resigned on November 7, 1979, the revolutionary judge Khalkhali decided that the Shah should be murdered. Foreign Minister Ghotbzadeh wanted to bring the Shah back to Iran to try him there. Ghotbzadeh wanted to exchange the American hostages for the Shah.
The Shah offered President Carter to leave the United States immediately. However, the government of Mexico had declared that the Shah could no longer return to Mexico. On December 2, the Shah and Farah Pahlavi left the hospital in New York and were taken to a military hospital at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas. A windowless room had been reserved for the Shah "for security reasons", and Farah had been assigned a room with the door handles removed. President Carter negotiated with General Torrijos of Panama to allow the Shah to leave for Panama. Torrijos agreed.
- Panama
On December 15, the Shah and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi flew to Contadora in Panama. There the Shah's health deteriorated further. In addition, an extradition request by the Iranian government would have resulted in the immediate arrest of the Shah under Panamanian law. While the American government was negotiating the release of the hostages, Farah Pahlavi had telephone contact with Jehan Sadat , the wife of President Sadat. Jehan persuaded Farah that they should return to Egypt immediately so that they could continue the Shah's medical treatment there, safe from the stalking of the Islamic regime in Tehran.
- Egypt
On March 23, 1980, the Shah and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi left Panama on a charter flight to Egypt. The Shah went straight to the Maad military hospital in Cairo. There he died on July 27, 1980 as a result of longstanding cancer. Farah Pahlavi initially took over the reign until her eldest son, Cyrus Reza Pahlavi, came of age . On October 31, 1980, at the age of 20, the Crown Prince swore on the Koran to take over the duties assigned to him by the previous Iranian constitution.
- France
Farah Pahlavi now lives alternately in France and the USA. Among other things, she is involved in the UNESCO children's education program Kinder in Not . As part of this activity, she visited Germany in November 2001 and July 2002.
On June 10, 2001, their youngest daughter Leila Pahlavi died in London from an overdose of sleeping pills. On January 17, 2004, the youngest daughter of their son Cyrus was born, who is also called Farah. On January 4, 2011, their son Ali Reza Pahlavi committed suicide in Boston at the age of 44.
title
- Malekeh Farah Pahlavi (1959–1961)
- Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi (1961–1980)
- Empress Farah Pahlavi (1967–1970; claim title since )
Orders and decorations
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Awards
- 1968: Voted Woman of the Year by the Washington Post . The award recognized her social commitment and her commitment to leprosy sufferers in Iran.
- Steiger Award 2005 Charity
- 2005: Anne Morrow Lindbergh Grace and Distinction Award
be right
- stern : “His [Mohammad Reza Pahlavis] third wife, Farah Diba, cherishes the memory to this day and keeps the family chronicle with her special view of history. She attests to her deceased husband's unlimited love for his country. "
photos
Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi with her family after the coronation in 1967
Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi visits lepers in Baba Baghi (East Azerbaijan)
Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi meets the President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , State Visit to India, 1970
Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi visits an orphanage, 1970
Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi and Prime Minister Hoveyda on a state visit to China, 1972
Schahbanu Farah Pahlavi with sisters of the municipal hospital in Kermanshah, Iran, 1973
Film "Farah Diba - The Empress and I"
In 2009, Iranian-born filmmaker Nahid Persson Sarvestani accompanied Farah Pahlavi for several weeks for a film project ( SVT , Sweden , German participation SWR ) and visited with her, among other things, the grave in Paris where Farah Pahlavi's mother Farideh Diba (née Ghotbi) and her only deceased daughter Leila Pahlavi are buried, and her husband's grave in Cairo.
The film mainly deals with the similarities between the two women - both were born in Iran and both lost a close relative due to the political events around 30 years ago and are still unwittingly in exile today - but also the strong tension between them, there the family of Nahid Persson Sarvestani fought on the side of the communists against the rule of the Shah. After Khomeini came to power, her brother Rostam was hanged as part of the so-called purges. In her film, Sarvestani shows how her opposition to the monarchy in support for Farah Pahlavi has changed in the course of filming: "I can say that I have become a sympathizer of Farah, but I will probably not become a royalist because of that."
In the original version, the film is called "The Queen and I". The German version of the "Real Reel" production was created under the direction of Gudrun Hanke-el Schomri at SWR. One of the voice actors is the actress Rosemarie Fendel .
Works
- Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories , Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2004, ISBN 3-404-61575-1 .
- Farah Diba-Pahlavi: An Enduring Love , Miramax 2004, ISBN 978-1-4013-5209-7 .
literature
- Gero von Boehm : Farah Diba Pahlavi. October 31, 2008. Interview in: Encounters. Images of man from three decades. Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-89910-443-1 , pp. 628-640.
- Hanns Kurth: Farah Diba and the Shah of Persia. German Book sales u. Verl.-Ges., 1961.
- Mansore Pirnia: Safar Nameh Shahbanu (Book of the Journeys of the Shahbanu). More Iran, 1371 (1992).
Web links
- Literature by and about Farah Pahlavi in the catalog of the German National Library
- Farah Diba in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official site (English).
- Farah Pahlavi: Last Empress of Persia looks back
Individual evidence
- ↑ limited preview in the Google book search
- ↑ Official main page ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (engl.)
- ↑ a b Short biography of Farah Diba
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories. 2004, p. 32.
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories. 2004, p. 26.
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories. 2004, p. 99.
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories. 2004, p. 158.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 52.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 136.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 81.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 121.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 143.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 168.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 170.
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories. Bergisch Gladbach, 2004, p. 161f.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 41 ff.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 120.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Mansore Pirnia: Safar Nameh Shahbanu (Book of the journeys of the Shahbanu) . More Iran 1371 (1992).
- ↑ Mansore Pirnia: Safar Nameh Shahbanu (Book of the journeys of the Shahbanu) . More Iran 1371 (1992), p. 13.
- ^ Publication by Her Highness' Office (Farah Pahlavi), 1354 (1975). P. 36.
- ↑ http://www.infopartisan.net/archive/1967/266784.html
- ↑ FAZ.NET of May 21, 2009, accessed on January 12, 2010
- ^ A b Catherine Legrand, Jacques Legrand: Shah-i Iran. Creative Publishing International (farsi edition), Minnetonka, MN 1999, p. 90.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhani: The Life and Time of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 248.
- ^ Catherine Legrand, Jacques Legrand: Shah-i Iran. Creative Publishing International (farsi edition), Minnetonka, MN 1999, p. 105.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhani: The Life and Time of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 249.
- ↑ a b Gholam Reza Afkhani: The Life and Time of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 247.
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories . Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 2004, p. 306.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 465.
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories . Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 2004, p. 308.
- ^ Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories . Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 2004, p. 312.
- ^ A b Farah Diba-Pahlavi: Memories . Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 2004, p. 313.
- ↑ a b http://www.ghadeer.org/english/imam/imam-books/kauthar2/kuth33.html
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, pp. 528f.
- ↑ Interview with Queen Farah. June 6, 2001. Quoted from Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 530.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 538.
- ↑ Garry Sick: All fall down. New York, 1985, pp. 177f.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 563.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 579.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 570.
- ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 581.
- ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
- ↑ Boletín Oficial del Estado (PDF; 470 kB), November 13, 1969
- ↑ Payvand's Iran News
- ↑ The last ruler on the peacock throne - stern.de
- ↑ http://www.examiner.com/x-5324-Sacramento-Film-Examiner~y2009m6d21-The-Queen-and-I--a-documentary-about-Iran
- ↑ The film was shown (among other things) on January 7, 2010, 10: 05-23: 35 p.m. on MDR, most of the information comes from the credits.
| predecessor | Office | Successor |
|---|---|---|
| Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari |
Empress of Iran 1959–1979, titular since then |
no |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pahlavi, Farah |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Diba, Farah |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Iranian Empress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 14, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tehran |