Family of the late Shah will be recognized for their work to promote religious freedom & democracy in Iran since 1979
YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Her Imperial Majesty Farah Pahlavi and His Imperial Highness Reza Pahlavi will jointly receive the Richard Nixon Foundation’s Architect of Peace Award this Fall.
The Empress –in exile since the Islamic Revolution of 1979– and her son, the Crown Prince, are powerful symbols of opposition to the terrorist theocratic regime now ruling Iran. They have each devoted more than 40 years to championing religious freedom in Iran, advocating for a democratic form of government backed by popular vote, and bringing attention to myriad ongoing human rights abuses in Iran.
The Award also recognizes the long relationship between Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and President Richard Nixon. The late Shah, who ruled Iran from 1953 to 1979, was a strong ally of the United States, and a bulwark in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The young Vice President Nixon and the young Shah first met in 1953 and immediately developed a close personal relationship that lasted almost three decades. In a 1983 interview, President Nixon said that he knew the Shah “better than any world leader I had met over the past 37 years of public life.” Nixon continued: “I found him to be a very sensitive man. A very intelligent man. One who understood the world as well as any leader that I had met.”
President Nixon was the only American representative at the funeral of the Shah in Cairo in 1980. Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi would later represent his family at the funeral of First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993 and the State Funeral of President Nixon in 1994.
Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi will receive the Architect of Peace Award at a gala dinner at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on October 22, 2024. Funds raised from the evening will support the Richard Nixon Foundation’s American Civics Campaign, a strategic endeavor to teach elementary, middle and high school students about the fundamentals of American democracy, history, and civics. The Award will be presented to the Empress at a private ceremony later this Fall.
The Architect of Peace Award was established in 1995 shortly after President Nixon’s death to honor individuals who embody his lifelong goal of shaping a more peaceful world. Its recipients include former Presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Mike Pompeo, Senators Elizabeth Dole, Joe Lieberman, and John McCain, Ambassadors Walter and Leonore Annenberg, and Ambassador Robert C. O’Brien.
Press credentials are required to cover the October 22 award ceremony in person. To request press credentials, please contact Joe Lopez at [email protected].
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Photo: WHPO-2217-10