In an attempt to save her position as Queen, Soraya told the Shah that he should change the constitution of 1909 to allow one of his half-brothers to succeed him, which Mohammad Reza told her would require "the approval of the Council of the Wise Men" first. Soraya, who had never read the constitution, did not know that there was no "Council of Wise Men", which was the Shah's way of putting off a difficult decision by lying. Mohammad Reza had already amended the constitution twice, so he must have known there was no clause calling for a "Council of Wise Men" to approve amendments. The Shah's domineering mother hated Soraya and was pressuring him to divorce her, telling him it was his duty to father a son to continue the House of Pahlavi. Mohammad Reza persuaded Soraya to leave Iran while he promised he would call the "Council of Wise Men" to change the constitution. Despite this promise, Soraya sensed her husband had turned against her, and before she left Iran one courtier remembered she had "systematically put her house in order".