Childhood
Farah Diba was born on 14 October 1938 in the Iranian capital Tehran, to an upper-class family. Born as Farah Diba, she was the only child of Captain Sohrab Diba and his wife, Farideh Ghotbi. Farah Pahlavi's father's family is of Azerbaijani origin. In her memoir, the former Empress writes that her father's family were natives of Iranian Azarbaijan while her mother's family were from Lahijan on the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea.
Through her father, Farah came from a relatively affluent background. In the late 19th century her grandfather had been an accomplished diplomat, serving as the Iranian Ambassador to the Romanov Court in Moscow, Russia. Her own father was an officer in the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces and a graduate of the prestigious French Military Academy at St. Cyr.
Farah enjoyed an extremely close bond with her father and his unexpected death in 1948 deeply affected her. This situation furthermore left the young family in a difficult financial state. In these reduced circumstances, they were forced to move from their large family villa in northern Tehran into a shared apartment with one of Farideh Ghotbi's brothers.
Read more about this topic: Farah Pahlavi
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