The World: Farah: The Working Empress

Being the Empress of Iran is more than glittering tiaras, palatial residences, dazzling receptions and state visits. For Farah Pahlavi, 36, the first Empress in Iran's 2,500-year history to be officially designated regent (she will assume power in the event that the Shah dies before Crown Prince Reza turns 20 in 1980), life involves long days of official work—including answering about 50,000 letters a year. "My husband is interested in Iran's G.N.P.," she says. "I am interested in its G.N.H.

—Gross National Happiness."

Intelligent, sensitive and elegant, Farah calls herself "a working Empress." She is patron of 26 social, educational and cultural organizations, and has been active in everything from advising women of their legal rights to promoting young Iranian painters and sculptors. Although Farah's role in the Shah's "white revolution" has been somewhat overshadowed by more dramatic political and economic developments, she has traveled widely about the country, visiting villages and talking to peasants about their problems.

Some observers believe that the current popularity of the Shah with Iran's people is due in part to the unaffected, natural style of the Empress. On one trip to the interior, a peasant woman who did not want to bare her face impulsively pulled Farah under her chador (veil) to kiss her. "Many problems touch me, and I can be a good advocate," says Farah, who meets once a week with Premier Hoveida and does not hesitate to take up what she considers urgent problems with the Shah.

One of her principal tasks these days is administering a $5 million budget and a staff of 40 workers, who handle the avalanche of requests for help that flood her office. Though financial assistance is sometimes given, Farah prefers whenever possible to find long-range solutions such as jobs, better housing or scholarships. "We will have to continue to do this," she says of her role as the Shah's principal adviser on social and cultural problems, "until our welfare system is more spread out." Appropriately, her main concern at present is to broaden Iran's social security program.

The daughter of a well-to-do army officer who died when she was a child, Farah was a bright young architecture student in Paris in 1959 when she happened to meet the Shah's son-in-law, Ardeshir Zahedi, who is now Ambassador to Washington. Captivated by Farah, Zahedi arranged for her to meet the Shah, whose previous marriages* had ended in divorce because of their failure to produce a male heir. After an eight-month courtship, Farah found herself, at 21, in the storybook role of the Queen on the Peacock Throne.