The Bereft Queen

In government offices and theaters all over Teheran last week, Queen Soraya's pictures were being taken down. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi had reluctantly and sadly given in to his court advisers and ended their seven-year marriage by royal proclamation.

All week long, the Shah moped, according to courtiers. He had slept little for weeks. Four times he changed the wording of the announcement until it almost seemed as if it were she who was divorcing him. The final announcement was as apologetic as a Shah can be: "The Queen, forgetting her personal feelings as opposed to the nation's good, has made the decision . . . His Imperial Majesty, expressing his utmost regret, has renounced his personal feelings and with regard to the high interests of the nation has decided to end his marriage with Queen Soraya."

In Cologne, where she is visiting her father, the Iranian Ambassador to West Germany, childless Soraya said she was prepared to "sacrifice my own happiness" because the Shah "considers it necessary that the constitutional monarchy be perpetuated through succession to the throne in a direct line of sons from generation to generation." As consolation, ex-Queen Soraya gets a $67,000 settlement, an annual allowance of reportedly $48,000 until she remarries, permanent possession of several million dollars' worth of jewelry bought for her by the Shah, and the honorary title of "Princess" to express the Shah's "appreciation of her sacrifices."

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