Several years after inaugurating the festival in Shiraz, a city famed for its gardens, wine, and the medieval poets Hafez and Sa’di, Empress Farah, then 32 years old, spoke of her vision as she sat on the covered and ornate veranda of the 19th Century pavilion Bagh-e Eram (‘Garden of Paradise’) in my former hometown, overlooking a garden of roses, cypresses, and fountains.