The Imperial State of Iran existed between 1925 and 1979. The kingdom operated under Salic law, which did not allow for the succession of women. The Queens mentioned are, therefore, consorts and not reigning Queens. Any claimed titles since the end of the kingdom are titular.

The first Shah of the Imperial State of Iran was Reza Shah Pahlavi. He became Shah in 1925. His first wife had been his cousin, Maryam Savadkoohi. They had one daughter, Princess Hamdam al-Saltaneh Pahlavi, together before Maryam’s death in 1911. She was thus never a Queen. He married Tadj ol-Molouk in 1916 and had four children with her. She was his official wife when he became King, and so she was the first Queen.  During their marriage, he also married Turan Amirsoleimani in 1922. They had one son together before divorcing in 1923. That same year, he also married Esmat Dowlatshahi, with whom he had five children. However, she was not given the title of Queen.

Tadj ol-Molouk (public domain)

Upon Reza Shah Pahlavi’s death on 26 July 1944, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. He had married Princess Fawzia of Egypt in 1939, and they had had one daughter in 1940. Upon her husband’s accession, she became Queen. However, their marriage was deeply unhappy, and they were divorced in 1948.

Fawzia of Egypt (public domain)

He remarried to Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary in 1951, and she became the country’s third Queen. However, the couple could not have children together and they were divorced in 1958. He remarried the following year to Farah Diba. She was the fourth queen of Iran. She and Mohammad Reza went on to have four children together, including two sons. In 1967, Farah was crowned as Shahbanu or Empress of Iran.

Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary (public domain)

In 1979, Mohammad Reza was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution. The monarchy was abolished, and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established. He died the following year on 27 July 1980.

Farah Diba (public domain)

The claim to the Iranian throne passed to his eldest son, Crown Prince Reza, who was unmarried at the time. In 1986, he married the 17-year-old Yasmine Etemad-Amini. She is the current titular Empress of Iran. She and Crown Prince Reza have three daughters together, who cannot carry on their father’s claim. His heir is Patrick Ali Pahlavi, a grandson of Reza Shah through his second son.

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Empress Farah has stated in an interview that she believed that a restored Iranian monarchy would follow male-preference primogeniture, which would make her granddaughter, Princess Noor, the heir to her father’s claim.1

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