Much to her disgust, Mohammad Reza was “fascinated with this diabolical Swiss” who professed to be a “philosopher, poet, and a prophet”; the two men met every morning to discuss all the affairs of state in French as Perron was the man whose advice the Shah valued the most, and, as Soraya soon learned, other matters were discussed as well.
She was born in the English Missionary Hospital in Isfahan on 22 June 1932. She had one sibling, a younger brother, Bijan (1937–2001). Her family had long been involved in the Iranian government and diplomatic corps. An uncle, Sardar Assad, was a leader in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of the early 20th century.Soraya was raised in Berlin and Isfahan, and educated in London and Switzerland.
