Farah Pahlavi, Shahbanou of Iran was dubbed ‘Little Cinderella’ by the Western press on her engagement to the Shah of Iran in 1959. Her coronation made her the first empress of Iran, little did she know she would also be the last. Her memoirs were written when she was thirty-eight, a wife, a mother, a cultural visionary, and a champion of womens’ rights. Reigning from the glittering peacock throne, she tells her life story. 

 

Both candid and discrete, the empress’ words reveal her shyness and her mystery, her position at the nexus of the cultural currents of East and West, and her prominent role in history. We read of her hopes and dreams, her vision for a better Iran; we hear the optimism of youth and the innocence and good intentions of a young woman who had no idea what history would bring, the end of a fairy tale.