LEILA taught me one great lesson,” says former Iranian Empress Farah Pahlavi speaking of her youngest daughter who died in London last month. “She taught me that losing is an art that we must all learn master.”
“I began by losing my father when I was a child,” Farah continues. “In my teens I lost one of my best friends. In my 40s I lost my country and, immediately after that, my husband. Later I lost my mother. There were other losses: dear and close friends such as President Sadat, King Hassan of Morocco and Jordan’s King Hussein. But it was not until Leila died that I realized that the story of my life consists of a series of losses. But then this is the life story of all human beings, isn’t it?”
Farah says it is now that she realizes the significance of a metallic sculpture by Parviz Tanavoli, one of Iran’s modernist sculptors. The esoteric shape can be read as the Persian word “heech” which means “nothing.” “When I bought that sculpture I just thought it to be beautiful,” she says. “It is now that I understand its message.”
Then she adds: “By the way I lost the sculpture as well. It was left behind in Tehran when we flew to Cairo in January 1979. The palace was plundered in the heat of the revolution and I don’t know where the sculpture is.”
These days Farah is dressed all in black, reminding one of a character out of ancient tragedies. And it seems that, like Electra, mourning becomes Farah. She wears almost no makeup and walks with a certain hesitation. Her voice crackles in mid-sentence, courageously suppressing a tremulous attack. Farah is a suffering widow, a heart-broken friend and an inconsolable mother.
But even for those who have mastered the art of losing, life goes on. And today she will lead a special ceremony in memory of her husband Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The late Shah was buried in a corner of the Rifai Mosque in Cairo 21 years and just 18 months after he had been forced out of Iran. Farah describes those months as “the blackest of our lives” and recalls how she, the Shah and three of their four children, had to move from country to country: Egypt, Morocco, the United States, Mexico, Panama and, once again, Egypt.
“When none of our many friends agreed to give us a home, President Sadat urged us to go back to Egypt,” she recalls.
The exiled family were housed in the Qasr Al-Qubbah where they lived for a full two years. Even now they still use special apartments in the palace during their frequent visits to Egypt.
By the time the family had returned to Cairo in the summer of 1980, the Shah was on his deathbed. When he passed away the family decided on a temporary burial in Cairo. The hope was that, and still is, that the Shah will one day be buried in Iran.
Twenty-one years later, the family has been forced to admit that the “temporary” state of the Shah’s tomb may last for many more years. This is why the grave and the immediate area around it have undergone a number of changes in recent years. A full-time caretaker has also been appointed to clean the place and bring in fresh flowers each day.
Today’s ceremony will witness the largest gathering of the Pahlavi family since 1979. The empress will be there with her sons, Reza and Alireza, and her remaining daughter Farahnaz. The Shah’s eldest daughter from his first marriage, Shahnaz, will also be on hand.
Completing the cast will be Ashraf, the Shah’s twin sister, and two half-brothers, Gholamreza and Abdulreza. All other of the late Shah’s siblings, two sisters and two brothers have passed away in the past few years.
After the ceremony, Farah will fly back to Paris where she has decided to spend most of her time. She lives in a large middle class apartment with views of the Eiffel Tower that she inherited from her mother Farideh Diba.
How does Farah spend her time? Despite the fact that she is in exile her book of appointments is still full. She is routinely invited to major events by the royal families of Europe and is guest of honor in special functions organized by various associations. Her personal contacts go far beyond the Middle East and Europe. In a recent banquet in Paris in honor of Andreas Pastrana, president of Colombia, for example, Farah was at the heads-table in a place of special honor.
Farah maintains a small office in New York headed by Kambiz Atabay, a former head of the equestrian club in Tehran. The office operates an Internet site that has become one of the most popular in Iran and among Iranian communities in exile.
The former empress has also spent time publishing four books in Persian and French with the help of professional journalists. One of the books is about her many travels in Iran and has become a collector’s item because of the many rare photos included. A favorite of society magazines, Farah is frequently featured in illustrated reportages covering this or that aspect of her life in exile. She has also granted hundreds of radio and television interviews while spending many hours a day replying to letters and e-mails, many of them from Iran.
Despite pressures from many Iranian groups, Farah has refused to assume a political profile. She has left that to Reza. The magazine “Iranian” elected Farah as “The Iranian of the Year” last March and urged her to enter politics and seek to lead a new government in Tehran. But Farah insists that she has no personal political ambitions and invites those who want her to “do something” to contact her son.
For her part, Farah has cast herself in the role of an ambassador for Iranian art and culture. Last year alone she presided over more than a dozen events including exhibitions of Persian paintings, an opera based on the Persian epic of “Shahnameh” and a ballet inspired by Persian folk dances.
Farah, who studied architecture in Paris before marrying the Shah, was regarded as a connoisseur and collector of art in the 1970s. She persuaded the Iranian government to invest over $100 million in buying paintings by modern masters. By 1977, Tehran had one of the world’s largest collections of cubist, surrealist, fauvist and other schools of modern art.
Farah spends a good part of her life raising funds for two foundations. One specializes in promoting the introduction of Iranian art and culture throughout the world. The other focuses on needy Iranian children in exile.
With her children away in the United States, Farah is often alone. Reza lives near Washington, D.C. with his wife Yasmine and their two daughters Nour and Iman. Farah makes sure to visit them at least four times a year. Farah became a grandmother over a decade ago when she had just passed the 50-year mark. Today, at 63, she still must be one of the most attractive grandmothers in the world.
Farah’s remaining daughter, Farahnaz, is a meteorologist and works for a US company in Connecticut. Alireza, Farah’s younger son, is a political scientist and works as a consultant in New York and Washington.
“She is a queen of sorrows,” says one of her former schoolmates who still meets her from time to time in Paris. “There are no tears and weeping with her; her suffering cuts much deeper than that.”
Farah herself says she is serene. “I am sustained by my faith,” she says. “All that I had was on loan, never given for keeps. The art of having was easy to master. The art of losing is hard. But we all end up by learning it.”
