38 review for My Thousand and One Days: The Autobiography of Farah, Shabanou of Iran

1. 

   4 out of 5

   Bob Newman – Apr 14, 2020

   Queen of the Right (a bland aria) Some people may suggest I need to have my head examined, but I bought this short autobiography in Melbourne almost 40 years ago and just now read it. It came out just a year or so before its author fled Iran with her husband, the Shah. I read it as part of an Iran-reading jag. I am not sure if the book was ghost-written or partly ghost-written or written by the former architecture student in Paris who was only 21 when the Shah decided to marry her. His previous w Queen of the Right (a bland aria) Some people may suggest I need to have my head examined, but I bought this short autobiography in Melbourne almost 40 years ago and just now read it. It came out just a year or so before its author fled Iran with her husband, the Shah. I read it as part of an Iran-reading jag. I am not sure if the book was ghost-written or partly ghost-written or written by the former architecture student in Paris who was only 21 when the Shah decided to marry her. His previous wives had not produced sons. The overall effect is rather bland—student days in Tehran and Paris, clothes, vacations—but she (or the ghost writer) hotly defends the Shah and his rule, insisting on the benign nature of the regime, their wish to develop Iran and assume a more important role in the world befitting an ancient nation. If it were she who actually wrote this book, she belittles all opposition, professing not to understand “....why all these young people take part in it. They do not even have any precise ideas and one is left with the impression that, after a while, they forget why they took that road.” (p.106) Of course, there was almost nothing to complain about. They obviously were either silly or misled. Now go read Kapuscinski’s book or Fred Halliday’s “Iran, Dictatorship and Development”. Of course, these two chaps were “terrorist sympathizers” typical of the foreign press who attacked Iran without justification. Yeah, right. But still, she seemed a person caught by Fate to play a role in a history of oppression that she didn’t deserve. She went along with it. Did she have a choice of husband? She stands up for Iran as an independent nation, she isn’t lacking in patriotism, but she just never knew (victim of one’s own propaganda perhaps?) or never cared about what was going on under the surface of Iranian prosperity and gloire. She writes with a great amount of noblesse oblige, but to be fair, how could she, as queen of the nation, forced to play a part, do anything else? If you are looking for a book on Iran or Iranian society, this is certainly not it. But if this is really her voice (still a question, mind you) it is an interesting look at a minor figure in world history, a woman who probably had a lot more to give if she hadn’t been trapped in this quite ornamental life in which manners and looks were all, even if she took on many symbolic roles and tried to help her country. However, her lack of insight is startling, just a year or so before a gigantic upheaval overturned everything that she thought she was doing.

2. 

   4 out of 5

   Kanageswari – Apr 21, 2016

   nice

3. 

   4 out of 5

   Abdalaziz –

4. 

   4 out of 5

   Sahar –

5. 

   4 out of 5

   Sarah Al –

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Sukanya Chakraborty –

7. 

   5 out of 5

   Engy –

8. 

   4 out of 5

   Marion Volk –

9. 

   4 out of 5

   Apkasmia –

10. 

    4 out of 5

    Katalin Wittmann –

11. 

    4 out of 5

    Marwat30gmail.Com –

12. 

    4 out of 5

    Kudzai –

13. 

    5 out of 5

    miakowsky –

14. 

    5 out of 5

    Maryam –

15. 

    4 out of 5

    Sabrina –

16. 

    4 out of 5

    Farouq Jeydi –

17. 

    5 out of 5

    Nabeela –

18. 

    4 out of 5

    Ellen Mawad –

19. 

    5 out of 5

    Ahmedghanem –

20. 

    4 out of 5

    Khparisa –

21. 

    4 out of 5

    Alizaheer Ali –

22. 

    5 out of 5

    Katie –

23. 

    4 out of 5

    Huda Lutfi –

24. 

    5 out of 5

    Patricia –

25. 

    4 out of 5

    John Gideon –

26. 

    4 out of 5

    Motiee –

27. 

    5 out of 5

    Man dezhamkhoo –

28. 

    5 out of 5

    Sonik –

29. 

    4 out of 5

    Nancy –

30. 

    5 out of 5

    Ali –

31. 

    4 out of 5

    Bianca –

32. 

    4 out of 5

    Faisal –

33. 

    4 out of 5

    Roya Keyan –

34. 

    5 out of 5

    Richard Bean –

35. 

    4 out of 5

    Kaveh Rostami –

36. 

    5 out of 5

    Hîra Râhat –

37. 

    5 out of 5

    Damien –

38. 

    5 out of 5

    Marzieh Behboodi –