In 1959, there was jubilation in the Hall of Mirrors at Golestan Palace, Iran when the Shah of Iran, also known as Mohammad Reza Shah, married the 21-year-old Farah Diba. The young princess wore a stunning Yves Saint Laurent gown with the Noor-ol-Ain Diamond Tiara, and became the object of much curiosity at her wedding, receiving worldwide press attention and becoming known as the Young Queen of Iran.
Their wedding included a traditional Islamic nikkah ceremony followed by a banquet. This was the Shah’s 3rd wedding, and the match was orchestrated by his 19-year-old daughter, Princess Shahnaz. The young Queen was studying architecture in Paris in 1959 when she was introduced to Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran at an embassy reception, before the couple’s engagement was announced on 1 December and they were married three weeks later.
After the pomp and celebrations associated with the imperial wedding, the success of the 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. Thankfully, the couple had four children, Crown Prince Reza in 1960, Princess Farahnaz in 1963, Prince Alireza in 1966, and Princess Leila in 1970.
Like many other royal consorts, the Queen initially limited herself to a ceremonial role. In 1961 during a visit to France, the Francophile Farah befriended the French culture minister André Malraux, leading her to arrange the exchange of cultural artefacts between French and Iranian art galleries and museums, a lively trade that continued until the couple were forced to flee their country during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The Shah passed away in 1980, and Empress Farah lives in exile in between Washington, D.C. and Paris.
