(2 of 2)
But the biggest gains have been in social progress. In a country where landlords once owned whole villages, impressive reforms have made landowners of three-fourths of all Iranian farmers. Under new laws, 20% of every Iranian factory's profits must be divided among its workers. Women have achieved the vote, and a 32,000-man uniformed literacy corps is at work teaching illiterate villagers how to read and write. Iran is not yet a democracy. "His Majesty is the boss. Period," says the Shah's Prime Minister, Amir Abbas Hoveida. But the boss has allowed considerable freedom; his once dreaded SAVAK (secret police) is now little more than an intelligence-gathering agency.
Preparing to Reign. The Shah's Empress has done her share too. One reform that she helped put through prohibits a man from taking another wife unless he has the permission of both a local court and his existing wives (though most Iranians are practicing Moslems, they are racially Aryans, not Arabs). The former Farah Diba went to schools in Teheran, where she was captain of her high school basketball team, first met the Shah eight years ago on a reception line while she was studying architecture in Paris. After a constituent assembly convenes this May to approve the Shah's plan for a regent-designate, more official duties will be added to Empress Farah's already busy life, including instruction in the affairs of government. When going abroad, she will travel apart from her husband so that, should Allah's protection falter, a mishap would claim only one of them.