QUEEN SORAYA: IRANIANS LIKE A HOEBODY WIFE
THE Shah is not the man his father was—but he never wanted to be. His father, an illiterate Cossack officer who founded a dynasty and unified and modernized Iran, was cruel and extravagant. When he slept in a town, all its dogs were killed lest one bark; he jailed his opponents, hung them by their heels and kicked out their teeth. With an army crop he once whipped a mullah. On the plus side, he reorganized the army, ended child marriage, unveiled the women, codified the civil law.
Simultaneously barbaric and benevolent, he treated his oldest...