Since January 16, 1979, following 18 months of increasingly violent demonstrations against the shah's rule, HIM Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi has been exiled from Iran (figure 5.1). Born in Tehran in 1938 to a family of diplomats, she was an only child raised by her mother who was widowed when Farah Diba was only 9 years old. She attended private Italian and French schools before moving to Paris to study architecture at the École spéciale d'architecture in 1957. She was introduced to Mohammad Reza shah Pahlavi (r. 1941–79) at a reception held at the Iranian embassy in Paris in the spring of 1959. That summer she returned to Tehran on break from her studies, and the shah began courting her seriously. Their marriage took place later that year on December 21, when Farah was 21 years old. They had four children: HIH Crown Prince Reza (b. 1960), HIH Princess Faranaz (b. 1963), HIH Prince Ali-Reza (1966-2011) and HIH Princess Leila (1970–2001).

Empress Farah was the first Iranian queen to be given the title of shahbanou (empress) and the first to be named regent in the event her husband died before their first child, Crown Prince reza, turned 21. She was the patron of 24 educational, health and cultural organizations and instrumental in humanizing the Pahlavi dynasty by helping to modernize her country through land reform and the emancipation of women, such as women's suffrage, as part of the shah's White revolution (1963). Today, she is devoted to her family and the Iranian people and divides her time between homes in Paris, France, and Potomac, Maryland.