Pahlavi attended Converse College (now Converse University) in Spartanburg, South Carolina.[7] She attended the College with her lady-in waiting, Kokab Moarefi, in the 1947–1948 school year, but did not return any following years or obtain her degree.[7][8][9] However, Moarefi would stay behind, and graduate from Converse in 1950.[9] She and her brothers lived at the Marble Palace in Tehran with their parents.[4]
Activities
During the reign of her half-brother, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Fatemeh Pahlavi owned a bowling club and dealt with business, having shares in the firms involved in construction, vegetable oil production and engineering.[10] She also had a fortune of some $500 million during that time.[11] Her fortune came from the "commissions" extracted from military contractors by her second husband, Mohammad Amir Khatami.[11] Pahlavi also involved in activities concerning higher education in Iran[12] and had shares in an Iranian football team, Persepolis F.C.[13]
Pahlavi took courses from a British pilot to learn to fly a helicopter,[14] becoming the first Iranian woman with a helicopter license.[15] After she completed the first solo flight, she gifted her trainer with a watch, Omega Speedmaster, which had been given to the Shah by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 when they visited Iran as part of a tour to celebrate the first Moon landing.[14] In early 2021 the watch was sold for £18,000 at auction.[14]
Personal life
Fatemeh Pahlavi married twice. She married Vincent Lee Hillyer (1924 – 7 July 1999) in a civil ceremony in Civitavecchia, Italy, on 13 April 1950.[3] Hillyer converted to Islam.[3] On 10 May, they wed in a religious ceremony at Iran's embassy in Paris.[3][16] Hillyer was a friend of her brother Abdul Reza Pahlavi.[17] Fatemeh and Hillyer met in Iran during the latter's visit to the country. The marriage was not fully endorsed by Shah Mohammad Reza,[18] probably due to negative reactions in Iran.[19] They had three children, two sons, Kayvan and Dariush, and one daughter, Rana, who died in an accidental fall in infancy in 1954.[20] They divorced in September 1959.[21][22]
After divorcing Hillyer, she married Mohammad Amir Khatami, the commanding general of Iran's air force, on 22 November 1959.[22][23] The shah and his then fiancée Farah Diba attended the wedding ceremony.[22] They had two sons, Kambiz (born 1961) and Ramin (born 1967), and a daughter, Pari (born 1962).[24]
Later years and death
Pahlavi left Iran before the Islamic revolution in 1979.[19] During her last years, she was living in London.[25]
Pahlavi died at her London home on 27 May 1987 of cancer.[2][26] She was 58 years old and was survived by her four sons.[25][26]
^"Iranian princess dies at age 58". The Lewiston Journal. 2 June 1987. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ a b"Princess Fatimeh Pahlavi". Associated Press. London. 2 June 1987. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
^ a b c d"Shah of Iran's half-sister dies". Rome News Tribune. 2 June 1987. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ a bDiana Childress (2011). Equal Rights Is Our Minimum Demand: The Women's Rights Movement in Iran 2005. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-7613-7273-8.
^"Reza Shah Pahlavi". Iran Chamber Society. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
^ a b"Milestones, Apr. 24, 1950". Time. 24 April 1950. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
^"Y's and Other Y's, 1948. Converse Yearbook 1948". Spartanburg County Public Libraries. pp. 78–79. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
^ a bNancy Atkins (12 April 1979). "Shah of Iran's Sister Attended Converse in 1947-1948". Spartanburg Herald. p. 1.
^"105 Iranian firms said controlled by royal family". The Leader Post. Tehran. Associated Press. 22 January 1979. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ a bDavid Harris (2005). "Buying Loyalty in Iran" (PDF). The Long Term View. 6 (3): 88–96. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
^Edgar Burke Inlow (1979). Shahanshah: The Study of Monarchy of Iran. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 91. ISBN 978-81-208-2292-4.
^Houchang Chehabi (Autumn 2002). "A Political History of Football in Iran". Iranian Studies. 35 (4): 387. doi:10.1080/14660970600615328. S2CID 144616657.
^ a b c"Watch presented to Shah by Apollo 11 crew sold by Dorset man". BBC. 19 February 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
^"Women in the IIAF". iiaf.net. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
^"Iran. Part II (1950–1955)" (PDF). Iranian Hotline. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
^Ali Akbar Dareini (1999). The Rise and Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty: Memoirs of Former General Hussein Fardust. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publications. p. 123. ISBN 978-81-208-1642-8.
^"Half sister of the late Shah". Orlando Sentinel. 3 June 1987. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
^ a bGholamali Haddad Adel; Mohammad Jafar Elmi; Hassan Taromi-Rad, eds. (2012). Pahlavi Dynasty: An Entry from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam. London: EWI Press Ltd. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-908433-01-5.
^"Shah of Iran's half-sister dies". Rome News-Tribune. 2 June 1987. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
^"US aided in ouster of Shah". St. Joseph News Press. Associated Press. 9 August 1980. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ a b c"Shah engaged". Toledo Blade. 23 November 1960. Retrieved 16 July 2013.