Fatemeh Pahlavi

Fatemeh Pahlavi (فاطمه پهلوی; 30 October 1928 – 27 May 1987) was Reza Shah Pahlavi's tenth child and half-sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. She was a member of the Pahlavi dynasty. Fatemeh Pahlavi was born in Tehran on 30 October 1928. She was the tenth child of Reza Shah and his fourth and last wife, Esmat Dowlatshahi. Her mother was from the Qajar dynasty and married Reza Shah in 1923. Fatemeh was the full-sister of Abdul Reza Pahlavi, Ahmad Reza Pahlavi, Mahmoud Reza Pahlavi and Hamid Reza Pahlavi. Pahlavi attended Converse College (now Converse University) in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She attended the College with her lady-in waiting, Kokab Moarefi, in the 1947–1948 school year, but did not return any following years or obtain her degree. However, Moarefi would stay behind, and graduate from Converse in 1950. She and her brothers lived at the Marble Palace in Tehran with their parents. During the reign of her half-brother, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Fatemeh Pahlavi owned a bowling club and dealt with business, having shares in the firms involved in construction, vegetable oil production and engineering. She also had a fortune of some $500 million during that time. Her fortune came from the "commissions" extracted from military contractors by her second husband, Mohammad Amir Khatami. Pahlavi also involved in activities concerning higher education in Iran and had shares in an Iranian football team, Persepolis F.C. Pahlavi took courses from a British pilot to learn to fly a helicopter, becoming the first Iranian woman with a helicopter license. After she completed the first solo flight she gifted her trainer with a watch, Omega Speedmaster, which had been given to the Shah by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 when they visited Iran as part of a tour to celebrate the first Moon landing. In early 2021 the watch was sold for £18,000 at auction. Fatemeh Pahlavi married twice. She married Vincent Lee Hillyer (1924 – 7 July 1999) in a civil ceremony in Civitavecchia, Italy, on 13 April 1950. Hillyer converted to Islam.