Annette Ranald's Blog: Annette's History Reads - Posts Tagged "iran"

Two Middle Eastern royal consorts, two different fates, two different voices. Empress Farah Pahlavi (born 1938), widow of the late Shah of Iran, and Queen Noor al Hussein, widow of King Hussein of Jordan. Both were commoners with the right connections to be introduced to their future husbands, both married men who had been divorced/widowed numerous times before, both loved and admired then men they married and each bore her husband four children. But while Noor remains in his late husband's kingdom, still taking part in public life there and around the world, Empress Farah is an exile in the United States, coming out mainly for events like royal weddings.

Farah's book, An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah: a Memoir, tells her story of being an army officer's daughter from an affluent background, fallen on hard times. Nevertheless, she managed to attend a university in Paris where, in 1959 at the Iranian Embassy, she met her future husband. With the help of Reza Pahlavi's daughter, Princess Shahnaz, the two began courting and were married in December, 1959. She bore Reza Shah Pahlavi four children, was crowned Empress of Iran in 1967. In 1979, the Shah and Shabinou fled Iran in the wake of the Islamic Revolution. The couple went first to Egypt and wandered from country to country until the Shah's death from cancer in 1980. Soon after, the American government allowed Empress Farah and her children to reside in the United States where she had lived ever since. She wrote her memoir in 2003.

When I read Farah's book, I expected to see over-the-top praise for her husband and unrelenting anger and bitterness over their fate. While she does express her anger and frustration at times, what surprised me was that she didn't dwell on her lot in life. She wasn't born royal, didn't expect to have the life she'd had, with glamorous trips abroad, jewels by Cartier, and acceptance into the royal club. Her focus remains on chronicling her life, and that of her husband and children. She ends on a note of hope, that her family will go home to Iran one day, if not as royalty, but at least in some capacity. This is a memoir of an intelligent, educated woman who's been through a lot.

Noor's book, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, chronicles her journey from her birth as Lisa Halaby (in 1962). She is Syrian on her Father's side, Swedish on her mother's. Her father had a career in the Federal Aviation Administration and was able to give his daughter a good education, ultimately leading to graduation from Princeton. She ultimately became Director of Facilities Planning for Royal Jordanian Airlines and met King Hussein of Jordan. They married in June, 1978, and she bore Hussein four children. She remained at her husband's side, undertaking royal charities and official royal duties, until Hussein's death in 1999. Although the current King, Abdullah II is not her son, she remains a member of the Jordanian Royal Family and carries out official engagements. She wrote a biography of her husband in 2000, and her memoir, Leap of Faith, in 2003.

Noor had the luxury of writing from her security as a member of a still-reigning royal family. She, too, never expected to be in the position she was in. Because of her continued high-profile life, I expected to see in her memoirs a lot of cheering for the United States and Jordan and endless pleas for a Middle East peace. However, she also keeps her focus on her life, her family and her plans for the future. Both of these women had a platform to express a lot more than they did. That they both chose a restrained approach in their writing shows a lot for them.