An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah

Mrs. Pahlavi demonstrates the most expected behaviour from a dictator's wife. She is trying to convince us how modern Iran was under the iron fist of a dictator. Her husband was the reason why a democratically elected prime minister, Mohammed Mosaddiq, was taken down by the intelligence services of USA and Britain (please refer to "All the Shah's Men" by Kinzer or "Musaddiq and Struggle of Power" by Katouzian or "Shah of Shahs" by Kapuscinski for the truth and full details). Shah was not only a traitor, but also a fighter against the democratic system that had a good chance in Iran in mid 20th century. Iran was pushed into the hands of mollahs solely due to the Shah's and his close allies' anti-democratic system for more than 30 years. If no space is left in the political arena for opposition, the answer is always the extremists. Same story all around the world is repeated over and over again!

When the truth is this, Mrs. Pahlavi takes us through a fairy tale of how her husband was trying to do his best to resolve the issues of Iranians (translation: selling his country to dirty oil powers and wasting public resources by having golden toilet seats in his private jet etc.)

If you love to hear the stories of a tearful widow who built her life on the sufferings of Iranian people, this book is for you. A good thing about her is that she does not lie and naively tells everything as it is (...and you read in shock!) She is no role model for any Middle Eastern woman (as she aspires to be) in the world, except wives of dictators.

The life of iranians (18/50 people found this helpful)

In the shah's time, iran was moving forward in all areas, demcracy would have been achived if the people were better educated, which was happening. The shah only killed people who stopped that eduction progress like mad mullahs, who said that woman are half of men; remember in shah's time woman were equal to men. the economy was growing at 12% a year and the standard of living was inproving, everyone would have benefited if there was more time for him to finish his work and iran would have reach demcracy.
if the shah had not been overthrow,september the 11th would not have happened because iranian mullahs are now the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world; they funded all know terrorist that hate america and israel. the world have been safe if he was not overthrow and the people of iran would have demcracy now

The Last Empress - Her Side of the Story (55/58 people found this helpful)

The English version of her memoir "An Enduring Love: My Life With theShah", was much-anticipated. The French version is already abestseller.
The beauty and serenity that once made Farah Pahlavi,Shahbanou (Empress) of Iran a magazine cover favorite has hardly changedin the 25 years since she and her husband, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi,were swept from power by an Islamic revolution that changed their ancientland and, as it turned out, the world as well. For more than 25 years theEmpress has remained silent.
In her autobiography she describes her life story as she sees it. Part 1covers her family background, her days as struggling architecture studentin Paris, suddenly swept away in to the Imperial Palaces in order to marrythe twice-divorced and sonless Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, fulling soonthe Emperor’ s hope for a son and heir. Parts 2 and 3 cover Farah's yearsas Iran's increasingly assertive and active empress. Part 4 covers theroyal family's experience of exile.
Much critism has been leved on the former Empress for the content of herautobiography. It is said that nostalgia seems to have blured her visionand reconstructs memory. The book seems to be a self-effacing, nostalgicmemoir of an aggrieved queen bent on resurrecting the reputation of hermaligned king. It is an unabashed and sometimes contrived attempt at therehabilitation of her husband's place in history.
As much as the regime of the Shah-in-Shah was disputed, as much will bethe memoirs of his wife. Of course, the views have changed over time.While the Shah was in power there were wide-spread opposition to hisregime due to human rights abuses. But as the Islamic Republic followingthe Shah was not much better, and especially openly hostile to the Westernworld, the Shah’ s rule seem to much more acceptabel for the Westernworld. Maybe a remark by former US-President Johnson with regards to aSouth Amercian dictator applies to the case of the Schah: “I know he is ason of a bitch, but he is OUR son of a bitch.”.
So ask yourself what do you expect from the autobiography of the lastEmpress: A neutral, completely open and balanced accout of her life andthe reign of her husband or her side of the story?
I believe one should not expect the Empress as being “super-human”questing all she and her husband did. First of all, I expected her to tellhow she sees things, what her very personal experiences are and were. Ofcourse, you will not get the complete picture but you will get animportant aspect of it. I found her perspective extremely interesting andhelpful in order to understand. It does not mean that I do agree with allshe wrote. Of course, there is a political agenda behind it, maybe less ofa whitewash of the past but a perspective for her son, the Shah-in-Exile.The book helps to understand how the Pahlavis see themselves, but readbetween the lines too.
I can understand on one hand why it is a bestseller and on the other handwhy many questions remain unanswered. Yes I think that more refelction isneeded why the Islamic Revolution came about and what was wrong with theShah’ s regime. So it is not the last word on the Schah and his family,but it is an important element to understand more about the time.
Therefore my recommendation is: read it but with an open mind!!

Third Wife of a Tyrant (18/64 people found this helpful)

Farah left out some relevant facts. Her book is like Carmela Soprano trying to tell us that Tony Soprano, a brutal mafia boss, is a great father, because he likes to play with his children.

While the current regime in Iran is an unmitigated disaster for human rights, the Shah's wasn’t much better. He clung to power by making people disappear. He closed newspapers. His prison guards tortured and raped children. His record was quite simply monstrous. If you want to judge the Shah by the standards of his own time, just review Amnesty International's records. They labeled him the worst.

The Shah didn’t practice polygamy, but he didn’t outlaw it either. He viewed women as a means to an end. He practiced serial monogamy.

The Shah's first wife was Princess Fawzia of Egypt. She had a girl, Shahnaz. The Shah divorced her after 8 years of marriage. The Shah’s second wife was the green-eyed beauty, Soroya Esfandiari. The half-German, half-Iranian Soroya was the love of his life, but she couldn't have children. The Shah divorced Soroya after seven years of marriage. The Shah continued his quest for a male heir and married Farah. She produced a boy. If she hadn't he would have divorced her, too, and wife number four might have written this book.

An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah

Farah Pahlavi

Reader Reviews:

Fairy tales from the wife of the Iranian Shah (3/5 people found this helpful)

The life of iranians (18/50 people found this helpful)

The Last Empress - Her Side of the Story (55/58 people found this helpful)

Third Wife of a Tyrant (18/64 people found this helpful)

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