Farah Pahlavi

Most people's hero is a family member, a friend, or a well-known celebrity. My hero is Empress Farah Pahlavi of Iran. Farah's maiden name is Diba and was born on October 14, 1938 in Teheran, Iran. She is the only child of Sohrab and Farideh Diba. When she was living in Iran, she went to a French school and moved to Paris to attend an architecture university called, Ecole Speciale d'Architecture. Farah married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the King of Iran, on December 21, 1959. She has four children Reza, Farahnaz, Ali Reza, and Leila. Unfortunately, her daughter Leila died in 2001. King Mohammad Reza, her husband, later died from an illness. He died at the time of the Persian Revolution; therefore, he was the last king of Iran.

While Queen Farah Pahlavi is rather typical since she is a precious daughter to her parents, married and has children, she is rather unique because she was a queen, so why is she my hero? Queen Farah Pahlavi is remembered as a wonderful, loving mom. Motherhood is a tough job, but it is even harder to raise four children and assist in the ruling of Iran. Of course, since they were royalty, they could afford the luxury of help, but she was the type of mother that wanted to experience motherhood just like anyone else; so she spent as much time with her family as possible. The queen did face some hardships with her children. She could not always be with them since she occasionally traveled, and she unfortunately also had to continue her diversified schedule despite her youngest daughter's suicide. She obviously became depressed and felt guilty. However, Queen Farah Pahlavi was also known for being a strong and generous person. She often went to see those suffering from leprosy and had a lot of fun with young orphaned children. Being a wife to the king was very difficult because there were people all over their country either worshipping her family or making an army to rebel against them. When the Persian Revolution started, the family had to go to different countries. The royal children were sent to the United States of America, where the queen's mother lived, while the queen and the king escaped to different countries. They first went to Egypt, then to Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico, the U.S., and Panama. Her strength to help run a country well, raise a family, support her husband, help and support those less fortunate and survive the stress and fear of assassination attempts and exile is heroic. Today, she does not live in Iran anymore. Instead, she lives in Potomac, Maryland, U.S.A. to live close to her son and grandchildren.

I chose Queen Farah Pahlavi as my hero because of her heroic actions and my relationship with her. My mother is Persian (making me half Persian) and we have a teapot and other china adorned with the King and Queen of Iran. My mother often discloses how good a person Farah Pahlavi is and how much she has done for Iran. In addition to that, I have several relatives and family friends that have personally met her! I think of Farah Pahlavi as a hero also because of the support she gave her husband. Can you believe that she had to escape from her own country and put her life on the line by staying with her husband because he was being chased? I think that she is so brave because she still visits Iran and is interviewed by reporters and journalists. Even though she is not a queen anymore, she still sponsors some Iranians and often visits the young orphaned children! Because she is becoming older, she is not as outgoing as she used to be, but she can still change the world by showing her loyalty and remaining poised and proud of her heritage. Therefore, I picked Queen Farah Pahlavi as my hero.