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
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