She received a liberal education for the Iranian women of her time, and attended university later in life while living in exile.

She first married General army Abbassgholi Esfandiary [son of Mohtashem Saltaneh] in a marriage arranged by her father.

Following the attempted assassination of Mohammad Reza Shah on 4 February 1949, the Tudeh party was blamed and her husband was imputed to have been one of the masterminds of the operation.

She started her life in exile in the USSR and then lived in East Berlin, in the former German Democratic Republic.

After his release in the mid 1990s, Kianouri wrote an open letter detailing the torture of himself and his wife while in prison.

She was survived by her biological grandchildren (Afsaneh's) Ali, Nilou and Firooz Gidfar, and (Afsar's) Faranak and Roshanak Fatemi.