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The Shah has also been tampering with male superiority. In 1963, he gave Iranian women, traditionally regarded as creatures with "more hair than brains," equal rights with men. By Shahvian decree, women can now vote, run for public office, hold government jobs (the under secretaries of three government ministries are now women), and even divorce their husbands. Their husbands, on the other hand, can no longer be married to more than one wife at a time, unless the first wife gives her consent. Since the matrimonial reform was put into effect, Iranian courts have consented to only one ménage à trois.
The Shah's attempts at political reform have been less thorough. He reopened Parliament in 1963, but uses it mostly for window dressing. All candidates must be approved by SAVAK, his powerful security police, and elections are so arranged as to give the Shah's Iran Novin (New Iran) Party an overwhelming majority of the seats. The Shah, in fact, makes little pretense of being a democrat. "For 2,500 years," he says, "we have had a monarchical system, which implies a certain amount of imposed authority." His word is law, and he keeps his Prime Minister, Amirabass Hoveida, 48, working 15 hours a day making sure that his orders are carried out. The press is controlled, and all public criticism of the Shah is forbidden by law.
The Shah worries more about water than about criticism. "There is just not enough of it," he says. To make use of what there is, he has already built six major dams; eleven others are under construction. With intensive irrigation, the Shah believes that he could triple Iran's present arable land—now only 10% of its total area—and produce enough food to sustain a population of 75 million. To do so, however, will require more water than Iran's rainfall and rivers can provide, and the Shah intends to get it from the sea. He is negotiating with Washington for the installation of a network of desalination plants along the Persian Gulf. Once in operation, he believes, they could supply the needs of most cities and factories in southern Iran, making more river water available for irrigation.
Embarrassing Custom. As were their ancestors, the Iranians today are lovers of ceremony, formality and tradition. They expect their Shah to act like a king and treat them as subjects. When he appears in a village, they fall to earth to kiss his feet, a custom that causes him much embarrassment. In his private life, the Shah can unbend. He and Empress Farah—with their three children, Crown Prince Reza, 6, Princess Farahnaz, 4, and Prince Ali Reza, 17 months—live in Teheran's Saadabad Palace in the summer, move to the better-heated Niavaran Palace when the cold weather comes. The Saadabad has been equipped with a regulation bowling alley, and the Shah uses it at least once a week. He also watches spy movies and operates model trains. He no longer roars around Teheran in a Ferrari, but is a jet pilot with 5,000 hours' experience in flying just about everything but carpets. Both he and Farah—his third wife*—like nothing better than to escape for a skiing holiday in Switzerland or a week or so of waterskiing at Naushahr on the Caspian Sea.