An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Empress Farah Pahlavi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2004

Farah Pahlavi has lived a life of extremes: a loving marriage to the Shah that ended with his death in 1980; a period of luxury in the court followed by years of exile and loss. Her story has been covered in the press and in countless books, but here she speaks out for the rst time, and tells her own remarkable story. The only child of an Iranian army ofcer, Farah Diba was an architecture student in Paris when she became engaged and married the Shah. Pitched from her ordinary existence into a maelstrom of paparazzi and international attention, she quickly became an icon for her age-a beautiful, serene young woman, romantically married to one of the most powerful men in the world. She writes about her early years and about Iran itself and her profound love for it, of encounters with world leaders, of family life in the palaces of Tehran. She describes the divisions of Iranian society and the gradual shift of public opinion, fuelled by the rise in religious fundamentalism, which led to the sudden overthrow of the Shah in 1979. An Enduring Love includes a moving account of the year the Shah and his Queen spent wandering the globe, rejected from the United States and shuttling between Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, Panama, and Mexico. Farah Pahlavi details the years of exile after the Shah's death, as she rebuilt a life for herself and for her children in the United States. Written with an affecting simplicity and directness, this is both a powerful human document and a fascinating perspective on an especially turbulent period in Middle Eastern history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The memoir of Farah (Diba) Pahlavi, widow of the Shah of Iran, seems, at first glance, like a clone of Noor's bestselling Leap of Faith. Both queens were intelligent young women when they met and married their older kings; both remain discreet about their intimate lives with their husbands (who both loved piloting planes and playing with their children); both immersed themselves, as new queens, in cultural programs and social betterment work for their people; and both end their memoirs shortly after the deaths of their husbands. The parallels are almost uncanny - at least until midway through Pahlavi's story, when the real differences emerge. In 1963, the Shah began his "white revolution" to modernize Iran by instituting land reform, women's rights and workers' rights; Communists and fundamentalist clerics vehemently opposed these changes. In Pahlavi's eyes, the monarchy stood for liberalization, even if its enforcement agencies were condemned worldwide for human rights abuses. To her, criticism of the monarchy only supported Khomeini's Islamic fundamentalist opposition. As the insurgency gained strength and the royal family weighed exit strategies, Pahlavi shouldered a new, personal burden: the Shah's concealed battle with cancer. Asylum offers were few. Sadat welcomed them to Egypt, but their stays in the Bahamas, Mexico, the United States and Panama were politically difficult. The Shah's medical treatments, meanwhile, were so bungled, so shaded by political maneuvering, that Pahlavi resorts to quoting extensively from one doctor's records. She ends her account with the Shah's death in 1980, their youngest daughter's death and the Iran-Iraq War, while Pahlavi's life has continued in Paris and Washington, DC. Readers seeking a female perspective on Iran's turbulent recent history will enjoy this candid, straightforward account.
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From Booklist

A lot has been written, over the years, about the 1979 overthrow of the shah of Iran, and most of it has been political history. This book, written by the shah's widow, the former queen of Iran, should appeal mostly to those readers whose interests run more to personal than political history. Although there is politics in the book, it is primarily the story of a young architecture student who, in the late 1950s, wandered into what looked like a fairy tale. It's the story of a girl who becomes a queen and who embraces all the pomp and circumstance that come with the position but who also works to retain her individuality. Pahlavi followed her husband when he left Iran and, since his death in 1980, has lived in exile, finally settling in the U.S. Gracefully translated from the French by Clancy, the book is a loving portrait of the man (and country) Pahlavi loved and lost. Yes, many will say this picture of the shah and of Iran during his reign is a portrait seen through rose-colored glasses. Tint aside, however, the book offers a fascinating look at a remarkable woman and contributes a new perspective on the history of a troubled nation. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Miramax; 1St Edition edition (March 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140135209X
• ISBN-13: 978-1401352097
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perspective, March 10, 2004

By 

Mahasti Ziai (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I enjoyed reading the book very much. The tone is natural and honest, with enough personal and public interest issues included to make it engaging. For someone who lost so much in the revolution to have refrained from naming too many individuals, whether in praise or blame, is remarkable, and shows a gracious and noble spirit. It leaves you wanting more but recognizing the value of the decision not to indulge. The final chapters are a heart-wrenching lesson in realpolitik Western-style. Most of all, I enjoyed reading about the events of the last 25 years from the perspective of someone who lost more than most people in the revolution and yet has managed to keep her love for the country, and her spirit, intact. She comes across as sad, but she's neither bitter nor cynical nor defeated; in fact, she sounds strong and hopeful. That achievement alone is worth shining the light on as a model to be emulated.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let the Truth be told, March 6, 2004

By 

Lola Saltaneh (Houston - Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I read a white cover / draft copy of Farah Pahlavi's book which I bought [...] around two months ago.

I actually ended up reading this book three times and whilst doing so, compared it with similar accounts of the pre and post-revolutionary events which I had read about from other Iranian and non-Iranian sources. I also put side by side with what I could recall myself from the events of that era.

My overall conclusions and those of my father who is also an avid reader of Iranian history were to the effect that this book was one of the most authentic and significant accounts of the contemporary Iranian history.

Reading through Farah Pahlavi's book, I could not help to observe an earnest effort on her part to be objective even when the account given were almost definitely in conflict with her own family's interests and historical track records.

In short, it tallies, at least 90% of it.

Also, because this book has been written by a woman and because I am a Iranian woman myself, I cannot complete this review without drawing a comparative reference between the status of the Iranian women during the Qajar times, during the Pahlavi Era and where we are today some 25 years after the departure of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Women were essentially no more than common slaves or baby factories during the Qajar period. The Qajar Kings, apart from being grossly incompetent in terms of running the country, never demonstrated any tendency towards progressing the women's rights or status within their kingdom. On the contrary, they all had their vast Harems where much like today's Saudi Arabia, they had literally hundreds of wives, concubines and several hundred children (some of which were their own and others were the courtesy of their kind, supportive and thoughtful court employees). In those days, nepotism was rife of course and every one of these Qajar children (whether rightful or mostly of the courtesy variety) use to be given government posts which anywhere else in the world would have been reserved for experienced and highly qualified civil servants. Mohamed Mossadegh was one of these children who much like his other siblings was give put in charge of the finances of the Khorassan province (15% of Iranian land mass) at the age of 8 (Eight).

Against this background, one of the first acts of Reza Pahlavi, the hungry army Soldier who saw no option but to wrap up the Qajar's crooked show was women's emancipation. He started with the women in his own family and then immediately extended this right to every other Iranian woman. He also began the process of changing the country's laws allowing women to have a greater say in the society. This process was continued by his son who also secured voting rights for Iranian women and actively encouraged their education. All of this progress simply came to a halt and was then dramatically reversed after the 1979 revolution.

Without a doubt mistakes were made during the Pahlavi era and one of their greatest was the unequal opportunity that the Shah in particular gave to the rotten leftovers of the Qajar dynasty (the by now middle aged courtesy children). Resentful about their loss of status, as incompetent and manipulative as their forefathers and traitorous to the bone, the likes of Mohamad Mossadegh, Ali Amini and Amir Abbas Hoveida lost no time in subverting the otherwise progressive Pahlavi dynasty by generating and in many instances stage-managing shows of popular dissents which eventually cleared the path for the mullah's hijacking of Iran in 1979. This is indeed the one big criticism that I have of this book, it does not really deal with the role of the Qajar dynasty in our current predicament.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A memoir overdue!, March 10, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Wonderful timing wonderfull book and wonderful words to set the record right.
The memoir of Farah (Diba) Pahlavi, widow of the Shah of Iran, has been overdue.
The bookstores were thirsty of completing their shelves by this book; the bookstore near my office ran out the first day.

Both queen and Shah were dear to the heart of millions in Iran, the communism and fundamentalism joint-venture never liked orderly fashion of living. They are influenced by their disorderly system of mentality. Their joint-venture with help of foreign press and oil sisters destroyed a country that was close to be called Japan of Persian Gulf.

What Pahlavi dynasty delivered to Iran is not parallels to Saddam or any ruler around the world. True Pahlavi's story, needed time to emerge and Farah Pahlavi patiently provided such time. The Barbara Walter, of ABC's 20/20 interview with Farah Pahlavi (Shahbano) is the compliment of this book, sat the record right.

When the real differences emerged, today's world demonstrated is sorrow by establishment of Islamic Regime in Iran, their end result is Taliban. The book brings out the truth, one of the reasons for us reading negative posting in this site. Controversial subject always creates negative and positive critic, which is healty.

This is a wonderful book that made me proud and said out loud whatever million Iranians waited to let out, this touching and inspirational words are here for the world to read. She wrote with a contagious affection for her Iran, her love and the culture that nourished the world.