Photo: Instagram.con/yasminepahlavi
In 1959, there was jubilation in the Hall of Mirrors at Golestan Palace, Iran, when the Shah of Iran, also known as Mohammad Reza Shah, married the 21-year-old Farah Diba. The young princess wore a stunning Yves Saint Laurent gown with the Noor-ol-Ain Diamond Tiara, and became the object of much curiosity at her wedding, receiving worldwide press attention and making headlines as the Young Queen of Iran.
Now, more than 60 years later, their granddaughter Iman Pahlavi is preparing her own spectacular wedding after her partner Bradley Sherman proposed. A modern-day Romeo, Sherman orchestrated a romantic scene for the occasion: a beach scattered with rose petals, the sun setting over the horizon and a bouquet of flowers ready for his new bride-to-be.
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Photographs of the proposal were shared on Instagram by Iman’s mother, Yasmine Pahlavi, who wrote: “Our sweet Iman got engaged this weekend. She and Bradley have been dating for three years. We’ve watched their relationship blossom and are so happy that they have made a commitment to share their lives together.”
The happy couple were later joined by Iman’s family, including her two sisters, mother Yasmine and father Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the late Shah of Iran and the last heir apparent to the throne of the Imperial State of Iran. Until the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Reza was Crown Prince of Iran. He attended university in America, where he now lives as leader of the self-styled National Council of Iran.
Photo: Desiree Navarro
Iman, the middle of Reza and Yasmine’s three daughters, reportedly works in finance, while Sherman is employed by an e-commerce company, according to Vanity Fair Spain. The couple live in New York, where it is possible the wedding will take place (it is easy to imagine one of the city’s numerous high-end wedding venues bedecked for such an occasion).
However, it is unlikely that the nuptials will match the grandeur of the last Shah of Iran’s. Their wedding included a traditional Islamic nikkah ceremony followed by a banquet. At the time, the young Queen was studying architecture in Paris in 1959 when she was introduced to Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran at an embassy reception, before the couple’s engagement was announced on December 1. They were married three weeks later. The couple had four children, Crown Prince Reza in 1960, Princess Farahnaz in 1963, Prince Alireza in 1966, and Princess Leila in 1970.
Like many other royal consorts, the Queen initially followed a ceremonial role. In 1961 during a visit to France, the Francophile Farah befriended the French culture minister André Malraux, leading her to arrange the exchange of cultural artefacts between French and Iranian art galleries and museums, a lively trade that continued until the couple were forced to flee their country during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The Shah passed away in 1980, and Empress Farah lives between Washington, D.C. and Paris.
Originally published in Tatler.com
