Fatimeh Pahlavi

Fatimeh Pahlavi (Persian: فاطمه پهلوی‎‎) (30 October 1928 – 2 June 1987) was Reza Shah Pahlavi's tenth child and half-sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. She was a member of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Early life and education

Fatimeh Pahlavi was born in Tehran on 30 October 1928. She was the tenth child of Reza Shah and his fourth and last wife, Esmat Dowlatshahi. Her mother was from the Qajar dynasty and married Reza Shah in 1923. Fatimeh was the full-sister of Abdul Reza Pahlavi, Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi and Hamid Reza Pahlavi.

She and her brothers lived at Marble palace in Tehran with their parents. She attended Anoushiravan Dadgar Girls' School in Tehran.

Activities

During the reign of her half-brother, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, Fatimeh Pahlavi owned a bowling club and dealt with business, having shares in the firms involved in construction, vegetable oil production and engineering. She also had a fortune of some $500 million during that time. Her fortune was a result of "commissions" extracted from military contractors by her second husband, Khatami. Pahlavi also involved in activities concerning higher education in Iran.

Personal life

Fatimeh Pahlavi married two times. She married Vincent Lee Hillyer (1924 – 7 July 1999) in a civil ceremony in Civitavecchia, Italy, on 13 April 1950. Hillyer converted to Islam. On 10 May they wed in a religious ceremony at Iran's embassy in Paris. Hillyer was a friend of her brother Abdul Reza Pahlavi. Fatimeh and Hillyer met in Iran during the latter's visit to the country. The marriage was not fully endorsed by Shah Mohammad Reza, probably due to negative reactions in Iran. They had three children, two sons, Kayvan and Dariush, and one daughter, Rana, who died in an accidental fall in infancy in 1954. They divorced in September 1959.

After divorcing from Hillyer, she married Mohammad Amir Khatami, the commanding general of Iran's air force, on 22 November 1959. The shah and his then fiancee Farah Diba attended the wedding ceremony.

They had two sons, Kambiz (born 1961) and Ramin (born 1967), and a daughter, Pari (born 1962). Pahlavi left Iran before the 1979 revolution. During her last years, she was living in London.

During the reign of the Shah, she wore the Sunburst Tiara and was the first and only known person to have worn it.

Death

Pahlavi died at the age of 58 in London on 2 June 1987. She was survived by her four sons.

Honours

National honours

• Dame Grand Cordon Imperial Order of the Pleiades, 2nd Class

Foreign honours

• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (21 October 1965).

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