Turan Amirsoleimani

Turan Amirsoleimani
Turan in 1965
BornQamar ol-Molouk Amirsoleimani
(1905-02-04)4 February 1905
Tehran, Sublime State of Iran
Died24 July 1994(1994-07-24) (aged 89)
Paris, France
Burial
Cimetière parisien de Thiais, Paris
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1922; div. 1923)​

Zabihollah Malekpour
​
​
(m. 1945)​
IssuePrince Gholam Reza
HouseAmirsoleimani
FatherPrince Isa Khan Majd es-Saltaneh Amirsoleimani
MotherShams ol-Molouk Monazzah od-Dowleh[1]

Turan Amirsoleimani (Persian: توران امیرسلیمانی), born Qamar ol-Molouk Amirsoleimani (قمرالملوک امیرسلیمانی; 4 February 1905 – 24 July 1994), was an Iranian royal and the third wife of Reza Shah, with whom she had a son named Gholam Reza Pahlavi.[2]

Biography

Turan was born Qamar ol-Molouk Amirsoleimani in 1905. Her father, Qajar Prince Isa Khan Majd es-Saltaneh Amirsoleimani, was a son of Prince Majd ed-Dowleh, one of the most important politicians during the Qajar era and a first cousin of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. Her mother, Shams ol-Molouk Monazzah od-Dowleh, was also a member of the Qajar dynasty.[3]

Turan Amirsoleimani completed her education at Namous High School in Tehran, an institution founded in 1908 to advance women's education in Iran, where she earned her diploma at a time when female education was still met with considerable societal resistance.

Marriage

In 1922, she married Reza Khan who was, at the time, minister of war. Reza Khan, though not of noble lineage, sought to strengthen his political position by marrying into a prominent Qajar family. The following year she gave birth to her only son, Gholam Reza Pahlavi.[4] The couple divorced shortly afterwards as Reza Khan considered her arrogant.[4][5]

After the divorce, Amirsoleimani refrained from remarrying and lived with her son Gholam Reza in a royal residence. In 1945, a year after Reza Shah's death, she married Zabihollah Malekpour, a renowned merchant. Tadj ol-Molouk, Reza Shah's widow and the Queen Mother, used this marriage as an excuse to force Amirsoleimani out of the residence given to her by her former husband.[1]

Later life and death

Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Amirsoleimani left Iran and moved to Germany, where she stayed at her cousin Soltan-Mahmoud Amirsoleimani's home for extended periods, before being moved to a retirement home in Paris in her later years. She died there on 24 July 1994 and was buried at the cimetière parisien de Thiais. Her son was buried next to her after his death in 2017.[6]

Amirsoleimani's house in Iran was located on the southwest side of the intersection of Pesyan and Ismaili in the Zafaraniyeh neighbourhood of Tehran. This property was partially destroyed by the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation on 19 July 2016 before being sold to a private owner and demolished completely.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Jalal Andarmanizadeh; Mokhtar Hadid (1999). Pahlavis (Pahlavi dynasty according to documents). Vol. 2. Tehran: Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies. p. 6.
  2. ^ Niloufar Kasra. "The Lonely Queen at Reza Shah's Court". Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (in Persian). Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  3. ^ Pahlavi, Gholam Reza (2004). Mon père, mon frère, les Shahs d'Iran: Entretiens avec Son Altesse Impériale le prince Gholam-Reza. Editions Normant.
  4. ^ a b James Buchan (2013-10-15). Days of God: The Revolution in Iran and Its Consequences. Simon and Schuster. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-4165-9777-3.
  5. ^ Janet Afary (2009). Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-1-107-39435-3.
  6. ^ Pahlavi, Gholam Reza (2004). Mon père, mon frère, les Shahs d'Iran: Entretiens avec Son Altesse Impériale le prince Gholam-Reza. Editions Normant.
  7. ^ "آلبوم عکس:خانه ملکه توران همسر سوم رضا شاه در تهران 'تخریب' شد" ["Photo Album: The house of Queen Turan, Reza Shah's third wife, was 'destroyed' in Tehran]. BBC Persian (in Persian). 19 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2020.

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