Her story began like a fairy tale. At just twenty-one, Farah Diba married Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Within days, her quiet and studious life transformed completely: her coronation as Empress of Iran captured headlines around the world, and she became an international icon overnight. Her early years as queen were marked by a devoted marriage, the upbringing of four children, and an unwavering commitment to social and cultural progress. Yet, beneath the surface of royal splendor, deep divisions within the nation were already beginning to emerge.

Two decades later, the dream unraveled. Waves of demonstrations and unrest swept across Iran, forcing Farah and the Shah to leave their homeland in hopes of preventing further bloodshed. Gravely ill, the exiled Shah would never return. The royal couple sought refuge in Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Panama — even spending time in a New York hospital while he received medical treatment — until they were finally granted asylum by Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, who himself would be assassinated just eighteen months later.

The Shah’s final years stand as one of the most poignant and turbulent chapters of the late twentieth century, revealing the fragile underpinnings of global politics and the West’s uneasy relationship with the Middle East.