Several years ago I was working on a project that put me in contact with a number of Iranian expatriates forced into exile when the Shah fell in 1979. They were mostly businessmen but I also interviewed an ex-minister’s wife and a former Savak (secret police) official. These people, once part of the privileged elite close to the palace, lived in the north of Teheran in the upscale district of Shimran. 

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