Marriage and Family
Farah Diba married Shah Mohammed Reza on 21 December 1959, aged 21. The young Queen of Iran (as she was styled at the time) was the object of much curiosity and her wedding garnered worldwide press attention. Her gown was by Yves St Laurent, then a designer at the house of Dior, and she wore the newly-commissioned Noor-ol-Ain Diamond tiara.
After the pomp and celebrations associated with the Royal wedding were completed, the success of this union became contingent upon the Queen’s ability to produce a male heir. Although he had been married twice before, the Shah’s previous marriages had given him only a daughter, who under agnatic primogeniture could not inherit the throne. The pressure for the young Queen was acute. The Shah himself was deeply anxious to have a male heir as were the members of his government. It was, furthermore, no secret that the dissolution of the Shah's previous marriage to Queen Soraya had been due to her infertility.
Together the couple would go on to have four children:
- H.I.H. Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi (born 31 October 1960)
- H.I.H. Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi (born 12 March 1963)
- H.I.H. Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi (28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011)
- H.I.H. Princess Leila Pahlavi (27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001)
Read more about this topic: Farah Pahlavi
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or family:
“The parent who loves his child dearly but asks for nothing in return might qualify as a saint, but he will not qualify as a parent. For a child who can claim love without meeting any of the obligations of love will be a self-centered child and many such children have grown up in our time to become petulant lovers and sullen marriage partners because the promise of unconditional love has not been fulfilled.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“We do not raise our children alone.... Our children are also raised by every peer, institution, and family with which they come in contact. Yet parents today expect to be blamed for whatever results occur with their children, and they expect to do their parenting alone.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)