TEHERAN: The handsome young Shahinshah of Iran was married today [Feb 12] amid Arabian Nights’ splendour to Soraya Isfandyari, beautiful 18-year-old daughter of a tribal leader. As the 21-gun salute boomed, the joyous news was underlined by an almost unprecedented wedding gift reported to have been sent by Premier Josef Stalin of the USSR. The Soviet leader who pointedly ignored the Royal wedding of Britain’s Princess Elizabeth to the Duke of Edinburgh was reported to have sent the Shah’s bride a matchless mink coat worth nearly 150,000 dollars and the Shah a desk set studded with black diamonds. …
The tall auburn-haired beauty who rode to her wedding in a luxurious limousine was clad in Christian Dior moon of silver lame brilliant with 6,000 diamonds and 1,500,000 sequins and with 20,000 white feathers arranged in hoops.
Over the dress she wore a short cape of silver lame and for the ride from her home to the Palace a magnificent cape of white mink. The net veil over her luxuriant hair was held in place by a tiara of diamonds and her high-heeled silver shoes were encrusted with simulated diamonds. The Shah wore a dark-blue uniform with a white sash [diagonally] across the chest. — News agencies
Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2026
