Iranian Shah's Widow Shares Insights on Revolution

March 6 -- Farah Pahlavi is a 65-year-old woman living a quiet life in Potomac, Md., but 25 years ago she was an empress living at the center of a cultural and political upheaval that continues to affect world politics to this day.

Watch Barbara Walters' full report tonight on 20/20 at 10 p.m.

Pahlavi is the widow of the late shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the emperor of Persia, whose pro-American government was overthrown by Islamic fundamentalists in January 1979.

In 1959, at age 20, she was a young commoner studying architecture in Paris when she was introduced to the shah. She recalls their first meeting, "I was so flattered and happy to see him from so close. And I remember I wrote a letter to my mother saying he has such beautiful eyes but very sad eyes."

The shah had just divorced his second wife, the Empress Soraya, because she had failed to give him a male heir to the throne. A year later, the shah began a fairytale romance with Farah, who would become his future queen, and the Princess Diana of her day. The couple was married in December 1959 in a glittering and lavish ceremony attended by a thousand guests.

Less than a year later Farah Pahlavi gave birth to a son, also named Reza, and the country went wild. "I remember the affection of the people in the streets when I came home from the hospital, offering candies and sweets and dancing all over Iran." The shah and shabanou had three more children: two girls, Farahnaz and Leila and another boy, Ali-Reza.

The Beginning of the End

In 1967, Shah Pahlavi was crowned king, and in an extraordinary move he crowned Farah his queen. "It was a very important thing for me and the women in our country because I always say when my husband crowned me I felt he had crowned all the women of Iran."

But the couple's good fortunes were short-lived. In 1963, the shah launched an ambitious program of reforms. He took land, much of it owned by Muslim clerics, and gave it to the peasants. He built schools and began giving more rights to women. The queen toured the country, visiting villages and reporting to her husband on the progress of his reforms.