Amid the Shah’s deepening health crisis and growing international isolation, Anwar Sadat extended an invitation to Egypt in March 1980. The friendship between Sadat and the Shah dated back to the 1970s, when the two leaders shared a vision of regional modernization, strong ties with the West, and opposition to Soviet influence. Sadat welcomed the Shah and Empress Farah with the respect befitting royalty. They were housed in a presidential villa in Cairo’s Maadi district, a leafy suburb overlooking the Nile.
To the exiled monarch, Cairo was more than just a place of refuge—it was a place of dignity and peace after years of rejection and humiliation. By this time, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was suffering severely from malignant lymphoma, which had spread despite years of treatment abroad. Egyptian doctors, alongside French specialists, provided care at the Maadi Military Hospital, where the Shah spent his final months. Throughout his illness, President Sadat and First Lady Jehan Sadat visited him regularly.
