When Shams Pahlavi passed away in 1996, her death marked the closing of a significant chapter in the history of the Pahlavi family. Her life, which was once filled with luxury and social prominence, ended in relative obscurity, a fate shared by many members of the royal family in exile. Yet, for many who lived through the Pahlavi years, her passing symbolized the end of an era—an era marked by the hopes and dreams of modernization and Westernization, which ultimately gave way to the reality of revolution, exile, and the establishment of a new political order.
