Fatemeh Pahlavi

Fatemeh Pahlavi (; 30 October 1928 – 27 May 1987) was an Iranian princess of the Pahlavi dynasty. She was the tenth child of Reza Shah, and the half-sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Born in Tehran, she left Iran prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. In 1987, Fatemeh died of cancer in London.

Early life and education Fatemeh Pahlavi was born in Tehran, Iran on 30 October 1928. Her mother was from the Qajar dynasty and married Reza Shah in 1923. Fatemeh was the younger full-sister of Abdul Reza Pahlavi, Ahmad Reza Pahlavi and Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi, and the older full-sister of Hamid Reza Pahlavi.

Fatemeh attended Converse College (now Converse University) in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She and her brothers lived at the Marble Palace in Tehran with their parents. She also had a fortune of some $500 million during that time. Her fortune came from the "commissions" extracted from military contractors by her second husband, commander of the Imperial Iranian Air Force Mohammad Amir Khatami. and had shares in an Iranian football team, Persepolis F.C.

Fatemeh took courses from a British pilot to learn to fly a helicopter, becoming the first Iranian woman with a helicopter license. After she completed her first solo flight, she gifted her trainer with a watch, an Omega Speedmaster, which had been given to the Shah by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 when they visited Iran as part of a tour to celebrate the first Moon landing. Fatemeh and Hillyer met in Iran during the latter's visit to the country. Hillyer converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam. On 10 May, they wed in a religious ceremony at Iran's embassy in Paris. 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. The shah and his then fiancée Farah Diba attended the wedding ceremony.

Later years and death Fatemeh left Iran before the Iranian Revolution in 1979. She was 58 years old and was survived by her four sons.

Honours National

Foreign 50px Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (21 October 1965).