| Past Glories |
15 March 2004
|
Shah's Wife Farah Casts Unwitting Light on Iranian Revolution
No form of writing is as self-serving as memoirs. The author's bias is inherent, but at least, it is clear for all to perceive. Moreover, one reads them to uncover truths of which the author is unaware. With that in mind, one approaches "An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah," by Farah Pahlavi, former the Empress of Iran.
There are more than a few stories going on here, each illuminating to non-Persians and especially westerners whose visions of Iran's culture and civilization have been damaged by the theocracy that has abused the nation for a quarter of a century. There are images of a genteel upbringing of a relatively wealth family in a very poor nation. Farah Diba, as her maiden name was, lived a rather normal existence for her class and time, with a certain degree of exceptionalism in studying architecture as a woman from Iran in 1950s Paris.
There are other matters that arise as well, such as the coup against Mossadeq in 1953. The left in America claims the legitimate ruler was ousted by the CIA in a coup to keep him from nationalizing Iran's oil. According to the Shabanou [a title created especially for her, the other wives of the Shahs had been Malika, queen] , Mossadeq had been fired as Prime Minister by the Shah and refused, quite unconstitutionally, to quit. The Shah wanted to nationalize the oil too, but wanted his prime minister to negotiate with the British who were running substantial parts of the operation. The CIA coup, if such it was, served only to oust an illegal PM, and Iran's oil was nationalized anyway.
The real story, though, is the role the Islamic clergy played in resisting the Shah every step of the way in his efforts to adapt to modernity. It seems the mullahs owned much of Iran and served as the nation's judiciary. The Shah endeavored to reduce their influence and wealth, and in the end, lost his throne. The struggle of the monarch against the aristocracy is a familiar one to any student of French, Russian or English history. The same forces clashed in Iran.
Where the former empress is at her most useful to the reader, though, is in telling the personal details of the Pahlavi dynasty. It is difficult on occasion to remember that men like the Shah of Iran are actual human beings who worry whether their sons will grow tall, and who love Charlie Chaplin movies. One is certain that the mullahs worry about their sons, but one cannot quite believe they would approve of Sir Charles' very subversive work. Although "The Great Dictator" could be remade for modern times -- set in Tehran.
Home