Farah Pahlavi

Empress Farah Pahlavi was born on October 14, 1938, the only daughter of Sohrab Diba, who passed away when she was only nine vears old. An Iranian Army officer, her father was also a law graduate of the Sorbonne and the famed French military Academy of St. Cyr. Her mother, Mme. Farideh Diba, personally supervised her education, first at Tehran's Jeanne d'Arc and Razi schools, and later at the Ecole d'Architecture in Paris, where she was studying up to the time of her marriage to the Shah anshah Aryamehr, which took place on December 20, 1959. As Empress she pursued her interests in social work, the emancipation of women, sport and art. Most of her time was devoted to the promotion of social welfare and culture, and she was patron of 24 educational, health, cultural and charity organizations. In addition to supervising the work of these organizations in Tehran the Empress payed frequent visits to even the most remote parts of Iran to obtain first-hand knowledge of the life and aspirati