I knew next to nothing of the geography, the legends of my country nothing of its history, nothing of the Muslim religion". Soraya later wrote about herself and Iran: "I was a dunce. Of all the Shah's many women, it is generally believed that Soraya was the "true love" of his life as she was the one he loved the most. The bride wore a silver lamé gown studded with pearls and trimmed with marabou stork feathers, designed for the occasion by Christian Dior. Entertainment included an equestrian circus from Rome. The ceremony was decorated with 1.5 tonnes of orchids, tulips and carnations, sent by plane from the Netherlands. Truman and silver Georgian candlesticks from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Originally the couple had planned to wed on 27 December 1950, but the ceremony was postponed due to the bride being ill.Īlthough the Shah announced that guests should donate money to a special charity for the Iranian poor, among the wedding gifts were a mink coat and a desk set with black diamonds sent by Joseph Stalin a Steuben glass Bowl of Legends designed by Sidney Waugh and sent by U.S. Soraya married the Shah at Marble Palace, Tehran, on 12 February 1951. They were soon engaged: the Shah gave her a 22.37 carat (4.474 g) diamond engagement ring. At the time Soraya had completed high school at a Swiss finishing school and was studying the English language in London. In 1948, Soraya was introduced to the recently divorced Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, by Forough Zafar Bakhtiary, a close relative of Soraya's, via a photograph taken by Goodarz Bakhtiary, in London, per Forough Zafar's request. Soraya was raised in Berlin and Isfahan, and educated in London and Switzerland. An uncle, Sardar Assad, was a leader in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of the early 20th century. Her family had long been involved in the Iranian government and diplomatic corps. She had one sibling, a younger brother, Bijan. She was born in the English Missionary Hospital in Isfahan (Farsan) on 22 June 1932. Soraya was the elder child and only daughter of Khalil Esfandiary-Bakhtiary, a Bakhtiary nobleman and Iranian ambassador to West Germany in the 1950s, and his German wife Eva Karl.
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