Persian Realm

Special Thanks to Farah Rusta for correcting me the other day. Nimtaj Khanum better known as Taj-Ol-Moluk was the First Pahlavi Queen of Iran.

Bio: Tadj ol-Molouk (March 17, 1896 – March 10, 1982), née Nimtaj Khanum, was the daughter of General Teymur Tadfel Molouk Ayrumlu, and was the queen consort of Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and Shah of Iran between 1925 and 1941. Her name means Crown of the King in Perso-Arabic.Ta

Taj ol-Molouk was the first queen of Iran to have played a public role, and to have performed an official position out in public society. She played an important part in the abolition of the veil in Iran during the reign of her husband. In the winter of 1934, Reza Shah demanded the presence of the queen and the two princesses in an official ceremony at the Teheran Teacher's College. All three were present at this ceremony and were dressed in Western clothes, without a veil. This was the first time an Iranian queen showed herself in public. Afterwords, the Shah had pictures of his wife and daughters published; other men were ordered to unveil their wives and daughters. With this, the veil was abolished.

Tadj ol-Molouk had four children: Shams Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and his twin sister Ashraf, and Ali Reza Pahlavi I. She was an ethnic Azeri.

Tadj ol-Molouk died in Acapulco (Mexico) after a lengthy battle with leukemia seven days before her 86th birthday. It is said that until her death, she was not informed of her own son's(Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) death two years earlier by fear for her emotional instability.

Tadj Ol-Molouk at her grandson's (the Crown Prince Reza) Birthday( 1977):