I try to forget about the bitter past as I [also] recommend for my fellow countrymen. I do not live in the past, I live in the present, always hoping… - Farah Pahlavi

The king was not marrying a princess; he was not giving in to the convention of arranged marriages between families of royal blood. No, he had fallen in love with a "little Iranian girl" and, as in fairy tails, he was going to follow his heart.

The people of Tehran, from whom I came, were giving me their trust, adopting me, honoring me, although I had done nothing yet either for them or for Iran. I felt so moved and overcome that I promised myself I would do everything in mypower for these men and women, and for the children I could see perched everywhere.

I remembered that when the shah was hospitalized, many foreign journalists came to gather negative reactions from the people of Cairo. But the opposite happened, the shop owners in the streets along with the general population were extremely glad to have the Iranian shah in their country. They considered us family who helped them in difficult times.