Kambiz Atabai was born in Tehran, Iran and is a 1961 graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom. During the 1960s, he served in the Special Forces and the Counterintelligence Department of the Imperial Iranian Army. In the 1970s, he was President of the Equestrian Federation of Iran and President of Iran’s Football (Soccer) Federation. He also served as Acting President of the Asian Football Federation from 1976 to 1978. From 1979 to date, he has been Private Secretary to Her Majesty Queen Farah Pahlavi.
As the Oscar race heats up, bets are on Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ to win big, but the film gets Iran and its history all wrong. Iranian Kambiz Atabai on why the film is an unfortunate and inaccurate depiction of the Shah’s reign and the country.
