Shams Pahlavi ( fa, شمس پهلوی; – ) was an Iranian royal of the Pahlavi dynasty, who was the elder sister of

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran , image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg , caption = Shah in 1973 , succession = Shah of Iran , reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979 , coronation = 26 Octob ...

, the last

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

of Iran. During her brother's reign she was the president of the Red Lion and Sun Society.

Biography

Pahlavi was born in Tehran on 28 October 1917. She was the elder daughter of

Reza Shah , , spouse = Maryam Savadkoohi Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlu (queen consort) Turan Amirsoleimani Esmat Dowlatshahi , issue = Princess Hamdamsaltaneh Princess Shams Mohammad Reza Shah Princess Ashraf Prince Ali Reza Prince Gholam Reza P ...

and his consort

Tadj ol-Molouk Tâdj ol-Molouk ( fa, تاج‌الملوک; 17 March 1896 – 10 March 1982) was an Iranian royal, who was the Queen of Iran as the wife of Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and Shah of Iran between 1925 and 1941. The title she was give ...

When the

Second Eastern Women's Congress Second Eastern Women's Congress, also known as Second General Congress of Oriental Women and Second Oriental Women's Congress was an international women's conference which took place in Tehran in Iran in between 27 November and 2 December 1932. It ...

was arranged in Tehran in 1932, Shams Pahlavi served as its president and

Sediqeh Dowlatabadi Sediqeh Dowlatabadi ( fa, صدیقه دولتآبادی ; 1882 in Isfahan – July 30, 1961 in Tehran) was an Iranian feminist activist and journalist and one of the pioneering figures in the Persian women's movement. On one of the occasions when ...

as its secretary. On 8 January 1936, she and her mother and sister,

Ashraf Sharīf ( ar, شريف, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef or sherif, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, fr ...

, played a major symbolic role in the '' Kashf-e hijab'' (the abolition of the veil) which was a part of the shah's effort to include women in public society, by participating in the graduation ceremony of the Tehran Teacher's College unveiled. Shams Pahlavi married

Fereydoun Djam Fereydoun Djam (1914 – 24 May 2008; fa, فريدون جم) was a senior Iranian army official, and the son of former Iranian prime minister Mahmoud Djam. Career Djam served as head of the Iranian Imperial Army Corps from 1969 to 1971. He ...

, son of then-prime minister of Iran Mahmoud Djam, under strict orders from her father in 1937, but the marriage was unhappy, and the couple divorced immediately after the death of Reza Shah. Following the deposition of Reza Shah after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, Shams and her husband accompanied her father during his exile to

Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

, and later

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. She published her memoir of this trip in monthly installments in the ''

Ettela'at ''Ettela'at'' ( fa, اطلاعات, Ettelâ'ât, ) is a Persian language daily newspaper of record published in Iran. It is among the oldest publications in the country, and the oldest running Persian daily newspaper in the world. The paper has ...

'' newspaper in 1948. She was deprived of her ranks and titles for a brief period of time after her second marriage to Mehrdad Pahlbod, and lived in the United States from 1945 to 1947. Later, a reconciliation with the court was achieved and the couple returned to Tehran only to leave again during the upheavals of the

Abadan Crisis The Abadan Crisis ( ''Bohrân Nafti Irân'', "Iran Oil Crisis") occurred from 1951 to 1954, after Iran nationalised the Iranian assets of the BP controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and expelled Western companies from oil refineries in th ...

. She converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the 1940s. Princess Shams was persuaded to convert by

Ernest Perron Ernest Perron (29 June 1908 – 1961) was a Swiss courtier in Iran during the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Perron had been a servant in a college at Rolle, Switzerland, where he taught the future Shah Mohammad to appreciate French liter ...

, the best friend of the Shah.Abbas Milani. (2011). ''The Shah'' , London: Macmillan, p. 49. Her husband and children adopted Catholicism after her. After returning to Iran following the 1953 coup which re-established the rule of her brother, she maintained a low public profile, contrary to that of her sister Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, and confined her activities to the management of the vast fortune she inherited from her father. In the late 1960s, she commissioned the

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and studio in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Open to the public for tours, Taliesin ...

architects to build her the Morvarid Palace in

Mehrshahr Mehrshahr () is a wealthy and luxury area located south-west of Karaj city in Alborz province, Iran. History In 1960s the area was mostly made up of large apple orchards which was designed and built by Ali Saroukhani and owned by the members of ...

near

Karaj Karaj ( fa, کرج, ) is the capital of Alborz Province, Iran, and effectively a satellite city of Tehran. Although the county hosts a population around 1.97 million, as recorded in the 2016 census, most of the county is rugged mountain. The urb ...

, and Villa Mehrafarin in Chalous, Mazandaran. She left Iran for the United States after the

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

and died of cancer on her Santa Barbara estate in 1996.

Honours

* Order of the Pleiades (Neshaan-e haft peikar), 2nd Class, (1957, Iran) *

Order of Aryamehr The Order of Aftab ( Persian: نشان آفتاب trans. ''Neshan-e Aftab''), also known as the Order of the Sun, was a decoration founded by Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Iran, in February 1873, before his first visit to various Europea ...

(Neshān-e Āryāmehr), 2nd Class, (26 September 1967, Iran)

References

External links

*
Picture of a young Princess Shams Pahlavi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pahlavi, Shams 20th-century Iranian women 20th-century Roman Catholics 1917 births 1996 deaths Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in the United States Pahlavi princesses Mohammad Reza Pahlavi People of the Iranian Revolution Grand Cordons of the Order of the Precious Crown Red Cross personnel Iranian former Shia Muslims Middle Eastern Christians Converts to Roman Catholicism from Shia Islam Iranian Roman Catholics People from Tehran Mazandarani people Burials at Santa Barbara Cemetery