The House of Pahlavi

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi married Farah Diba, the only child of Sohrab Diba, Captain in the Imperial Iranian Army and his wife, the former Farideh Ghotbi. The Royal Wedding took place in Tehran in 1959, and Queen Farah was crowned Shahbanou, or Empress, The title of Shahbanou was devised especially for Farah Pahlavi at the Coronation of 1967.

A month later on November 21, 1959, the royal engagement was announced with a wedding date set for the 21st of December. Farah moved into private quarters within the palace complex as preparations for the wedding took place. For the first time she realized how busy her future husband was as a head of State, and how precious and limited were the private moments he could take. It was also a time for Farah to get to know the rest of the royal family. She found her ability to bring harmony and balance in all situations very helpful not only with her in-laws, but in her future official role.

After the wedding ceremony, the royal couple spent their honeymoon at Ramsar, a small town near Caspian Sea. For such a private and intimate holiday, the royal couple preferred no place else than their beloved country. It did not take very long after her fairytale wedding for the new queen to get bored. She wanted to get to work and do something more meaningful and enduring than just attending official receptions and overseeing the royal household. But her eagerness to use her status to help her husband’s endeavors in building a better future for Iran came to a temporary halt as Queen Farah discovered she was pregnant just two months after their marriage. On October 31, 1960, the Shah, who had waited a long time for an heir, told his beaming wife at her bedside that she had given birth to a son, Reza. The royal couple went on to have three more children: Farahnaz (March 12, 1963), Shahpur Ali-Reza (April 28-1966 to January 4, 2011) and Leila (March 27, 1970 to June 10, 2001).