After 43 years in exile, it would be easy to withdraw and resign oneself to bitterness. But speaking from her home in Paris, where she has spent part of almost every year since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Her Imperial Majesty Farah Pahlavi fondly and franklylooks back at the two decades she served Iran by Mohammad Reza Shah's side. It has been _nearly five decades since her 1975 sitting with Town & Country, and the empress's relaxed, regal comportment remains remarkably unchanged.
It was a beautiful time, the empress remembers during our visitation, the type of which she rarely grants anymore. His Majesty and I were busy-I with my activities in different fields and closeness to the people and those who were working for us, and he with his work for the development of Iran in every field. We received many official personalities in Iran, and I had the chance to meet so many wonderful people, starting with kings and queens and presidents, artists, writers, and musicians. It was a very full life.
The Pahlavis reigned over the country and its glittering capital, Tehran, which was frequented by the international jetset, foreign dignitaries, global tycoons, and Hollywood celebrities. (Elizabeth Taylor famously accompanied her then-companion, Iran's ambassador to the U.S. Ardeshir Zahedi, on a well-documented trip.) But underneath the glitter, the shah fast-tracked the country's modernization and advancement, and the empress played an instrumental role.
French-educated, with impeccable taste and elegance, the empress had a vision of her own to better the lives of Iranians, from education and literary concerns to women's rights. She was to her country what Jacqueline Kennedy was about to become to Americans: an instant living icon.
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