Browse oral history

Interview with Pahlavi, Princess Ashraf

Reminiscences of childhood; recollections of Reza Shah, relations with mother and siblings; relations with Crown Prince Mohammad Reza; early education; relations between Reza Shah and Abdol-Hosein Teymurtash; on Sardar As`ad Bakhtiyari’s attempt on Reza Shah’s life; recollections of Mohammad Reza Shah’s marriage to Queen Fawziyeh and reasons for their divorce; on the Shah’s marriage to Queen Sorayya; recollections of Reza Shah’s exile to South Africa; travel from South Africa back to Iran; marriage in Cairo; on Prime Minister Mosaddeq and the events of 1953; role in the anti-Mosaddeq campaign; on General Zahedi, Hosein Ala, Manuchehr Eqbal and Amir Asadollah Alam; on foreign powers and the tribal and religious opposition to the Pahlavi state; on the Shah’s close advisors, Generals Karim Ayadi and Hosein Fardust; SAVAK from General Teymur Bakhtiyar to General Ne`matollah Nasiri; on the media and the left; recollections of the revolutionary upheavals; on the Shah’s illness; on the causes of the Revolution of 1978-79; recollections of meetings with Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller after the Revolution; on the Shah’s reaction to the Revolution; on Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Jamshid Amuzegar and Ja`far Sharif-Emami; Shapur Bakhtiyar’s premiership and General Huyser’s trip to Iran; on the Shah’s life in exile.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Transcripts

Princess-Ashraf-Pahlavi-APt-I Princess-Ashraf-Pahlavi-English

Contents

Part I: 74pp. + summary + biographical note + index + photograph

About the interviewee