Pahlavi attended Converse College (now Converse University) in Spartanburg, South Carolina.[7] She attended the College with her lady-in waiting, Kokab Moarefi, in the 1947–1948 school year, but did not return any following years or obtain her degree.[7][8][9] However, Moarefi would stay behind, and graduate from Converse in 1950.[9] She and her brothers lived at the Marble Palace in Tehran with their parents.[4]
During the reign of her half-brother, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Fatemeh Pahlavi owned a bowling club and dealt with business, having shares in the firms involved in construction, vegetable oil production and engineering.[10] She also had a fortune of some $500 million during that time.[11] Her fortune came from the "commissions" extracted from military contractors by her second husband, Mohammad Amir Khatami.[11] Pahlavi also involved in activities concerning higher education in Iran[12] and had shares in an Iranian football team, Persepolis F.C.[13]
Pahlavi took courses from a British pilot to learn to fly a helicopter,[14] becoming the first Iranian woman with a helicopter license.[15] After she completed the first solo flight she gifted her trainer with a watch, 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.[14] In early 2021 the watch was sold for £18,000 at auction.[14]
Fatemeh Pahlavi married twice. She married Vincent Lee Hillyer (1924 – 7 July 1999) in a civil ceremony in Civitavecchia, Italy, on 13 April 1950.[3] Hillyer converted to Islam.[3] On 10 May they wed in a religious ceremony at Iran's embassy in Paris.[3][16] Hillyer was a friend of her brother Abdul Reza Pahlavi.[17] Fatemeh and Hillyer met in Iran during the latter's visit to the country. The marriage was not fully endorsed by Shah Mohammad Reza,[18] probably due to negative reactions in Iran.[19] They had three children, two sons, Kayvan and Dariush, and one daughter, Rana, who died in an accidental fall in infancy in 1954.[20] They divorced in September 1959.[21][22]
After divorcing Hillyer, she married Mohammad Amir Khatami, the commanding general of Iran's air force, on 22 November 1959.[22][23] The shah and his then fiancée Farah Diba attended the wedding ceremony.[22] They had two sons, Kambiz (born 1961) and Ramin (born 1967), and a daughter, Pari (born 1962).[24]
^ abDavid Harris (2005). "Buying Loyalty in Iran"(PDF). The Long Term View. 6 (3): 88–96. Archived from the original(PDF) on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
Dame Grand Cordon Imperial Order of the Pleiades, 2nd Class[citation needed]
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (21 October 1965).[citation needed]
Media related to Fatemeh Pahlavi at Wikimedia Commons
