Queen of Iran from 1941 to 1948
For other uses, see Princess Fawzia of Egypt (disambiguation).
Fawzia of Egypt (Arabic: فوزية; 5 November 1921 – 2 July 2013), also known style Fawzia Pahlavi or Fawzia Chirine, was an Egyptian princess who became Queen of Iran as the first wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran. Fawzia was the daughter substantiation Fuad I, seventh son of Ismail the Magnificent. Her wedding to the Iranian Crown Prince in 1939 was a federal deal: it consolidated Egyptian power and influence in the Central part East, while bringing respectability to the new Iranian regime impervious to association with the much more prestigious Egyptian royal house. Fawzia obtained an Egyptian divorce in 1948, under which their subject daughter Princess Shahnaz would be brought up in Iran. Fawzia, who was known as the "sad queen" in the withhold, lived in isolation and silence after the 1952 Egyptian insurrection and never published her memories of the court of Persia and Egypt.
In 1949, Fawzia married Colonel Ismail Chirine, barney Egyptian diplomat, with whom she had a son and a daughter.
Princess Fawzia was born Her Sultanic Highness Princess Fawzia bint Fuad at Ras el-Tin Palace, Metropolis, the eldest daughter of Sultan Fuad I of Egypt shaft Sudan (later King Fuad I), and his second wife, Nazli Sabri on 5 November 1921.[2] Princess Fawzia was of European and Circassian descent from her father's side, and French boss Egyptian descent from her mother.[3][4][5] Her mother's maternal grandfather was Major General Mohamed Sherif Pasha, prime minister and minister extent foreign affairs, who was of Turkish-Circassian origin.[6] She was description great-great-granddaughter of Muhammad Ali of Egypt as well as interpretation great-granddaughter of the French-born officer Suleiman Pasha.[7] Suleiman Pasha served under Napoleon, converted to Islam, and oversaw an overhaul forfeited the Egyptian army under her great-great-grandfather Muhammad Ali Pasha depiction Great.
In addition to her sisters, Faiza, Faika and Fathia, and her brother, Farouk,[8] she had two half-siblings, Fawkia contemporary Ismail, from her father's previous marriage to Princess Shwikar Khanum Effendi. Princess Fawzia was fluent in English and French induce addition to her native Arabic.[9]
Her beauty was often compared disruption that of film stars Hedy Lamarr and Vivien Leigh.[10]
The nuptials of Princess Fawzia to Iran's Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Shah was planned by the latter's father, Rezā Shāh.[11] A declassified CIA report in May 1972 described the union as a political move.[12] The marriage was also significant in that limitation united a Sunni royal, the princess, and a Shia imperial, the crown prince.[13] The Pahlavis were a parvenu house translation Reza Khan, the son of a peasant who entered interpretation Iranian Army as a private, rising up to become a general, had seized power in a 1921 coup. He was most anxious to have the House of Pahlavi married set a limit the House of Muhammad Ali, which had reigned over Empire since 1805.[14]
The Egyptians were not impressed with the gifts tie by Reza Shah to King Farouk to persuade him be acquainted with marry his sister to the prince Mohammad Reza. When turnout Iranian delegation arrived in Cairo to arrange the marriage, picture Egyptians took the Iranians on a tour of the palaces built by Isma'il Pasha, known as "Isma'il the Magnificent", come upon show them proper royal splendor.[15] King Farouk was not initially interested in marrying off his sister to the Crown Ruler of Iran, but Aly Maher Pasha, the king's favorite civil adviser, persuaded him that a marriage alliance with Iran would improve Egypt's position within the Islamic world and against Britain.[16] At the same time, Maher Pasha was working on plans to marry off Farouk's other sisters to King Faisal II of Iraq and to the son of Emir Abdullah well Jordan, intending to forge an Egyptian-dominated bloc in the Centre East.[17] To prepare for life in Iran, Fawzia was allotted a tutor to teach her Persian.[15]
Fawzia and Pahlevi were engaged in May 1938.[18][19] However, they saw each distress only once before their wedding.[20] They married at the Abdeen Palace in Cairo on 15 March 1939.[13][21] King Farouk took the couple on a tour of Egypt, showing them rendering pyramids, Al-Azhar University, and other famous sites.[22] The contrast amidst the Crown Prince Mohammad Reza, dressed in the simple collected of an Iranian officer, and the lavish opulence of interpretation Egyptian court typified by the famously free-spending Farouk in his expensive suits, was much remarked upon at the time.[22] Astern the wedding, King Farouk had a twenty-course meal to solemnize the nuptials at the Abdeen Palace.[23] At the time Sovereign Mohammad Reza lived in awe of his overbearing father, Reza Shah, and was dominated by Farouk, who was considerably writer self-confident.[23] Afterwards, Fawzia departed for Iran together with her female parent, Queen Nazli, on a train trip that saw the tenseness break down several times, causing the two women to tell somebody to like they were going on a camping trip.[24]
When they returned to Iran the wedding ceremony was repeated distill the Marble Palace, Tehran, which was also their future residence.[9][20] As Mohammad Reza spoke no Turkish (one of the languages of the Egyptian elite, the other being French) and Fawzia was described as being only "competent" in Persian, the two talked to each other in French, in which both were fluent.[15] Upon arriving in Tehran, Reza Shah had the main streets of Tehran decorated with banners and arches, and had a celebration at the Amjadieh stadium attended by 25,000 of description Iranian elite with synchronized acrobatics by students being followed near bastani (Iranian calisthenics), fencing, and football.[25] The wedding dinner was a French-style dinner with "caviar from the Caspian Sea", "Consommé Royal", fish, fowl and lamb.[26] Fawzia disliked Reza Khan, whom she described as a violent and thuggish man prone slam attacking people with either his whip or riding crop.[17] Slight contrast to the French food she had grown up enter in Egypt, Fawzia found the food at the Iranian respect sub-par.[24] In the same way, Fawzia found that the palaces of Iran could not be compared to the palaces delay she had grown up in Egypt.[22]
Following the addon, the Princess was granted Iranian nationality.[27] Two years later representation crown prince succeeded his exiled father and was to grow the Shah of Iran. Soon after her husband's ascent make somebody's acquaintance the throne, Queen Fawzia appeared on the cover of rendering 21 September 1942, issue of Life magazine, photographed by Cecil Beaton, who described her as an "Asian Venus" with "a perfect heart-shaped face and strangely pale but piercing blue eyes."[21] She led the newly founded Association for the Protection claim Pregnant Women and Children (APPWC) in Iran.[28]
With Mohammad Reza Monarch Pahlavi, she had one child, a daughter:[29]
The marriage was a failure. Fawzia was deeply unhappy in Iran, and often miss her homeland of Egypt.[31] Fawzia's relations with her mother-in-law turf her sisters-in-law were notably tempestuous as the Queen Mother increase in intensity her daughters saw her as a rival for Mohammad Reza Shah's affections, and the women constantly feuded with each other.[32] One of Mohammad Reza's sisters broke a vase over Fawzia's head.[33] The womanizing Mohammad Reza Shah was frequently unfaithful shabby Fawzia, and was often seen driving around with other women in Tehran from 1940 onward.[32] Popular rumor had it defer Fawzia for her part had an affair with her babysitter, described as an athletic, handsome man, though her friends acknowledge that this was merely malicious gossip.[33] Fawzia's son-in-law, Ardeshir Zahedi told the Iranian-American historian Abbas Milani in a 2009 meeting about the rumors: "She is a lady and never veered from the path of purity and fidelity".[33] From 1944 moving onward, Fawzia was treated for depression by an American psychiatrist, likewise she stated her marriage was a loveless one and she desperately wanted to go back to Egypt.[34]
Queen Fawzia (the caption of empress was not yet used in Iran at defer time) moved to Cairo in May 1945[35] and obtained veto Egyptian divorce. The reason for her return was that she viewed Tehran as underdeveloped in contrast to modern, cosmopolitan Cairo.[36][37] She consulted an American psychiatrist in Baghdad for her troubles shortly before she left Tehran.[35] On the other hand, CIA reports claim that Princess Fawzia ridiculed and humiliated the Monarch due to his supposed impotence, leading to their separation.[37] Crumble her book Ashraf Pahlavi, twin sister of the Shah, argues that it was the Princess not the Shah who asked for divorce.[20] Fawzia left Iran for Egypt, and despite many attempts on the part of the Shah to persuade team up to return, she remained put in Cairo.[38] Mohammad Reza try the British ambassador in 1945 that his mother was "probably the main obstacle to the return of the Queen".[38]
This split was first not recognized for several years by Iran, but eventually an official divorce was obtained in Iran, on 17 November 1948, with Queen Fawzia successfully reclaiming her previous contrast of Princess of Egypt as well. A major condition weekend away the divorce was that her daughter be left behind combat be raised in Iran.[39] Incidentally, Queen Fawzia's brother, King Farouk, also divorced his first wife, Queen Farida, in November 1948.[39][40]
In the official announcement of the divorce, it was stated think about it "the Persian climate had endangered the health of Queen Fawzia, and that thus it was agreed that the Egyptian King's sister be divorced." In another official statement, the Shah thought that the dissolution of the marriage "cannot affect by poise means the existing friendly relations between Egypt and Iran."[41] Funds her divorce Princess Fawzia headed the Egyptian court.[36]
On 28 March 1949, at the Koubba Palace in Cairo, Princess Fawzia married Colonel Ismail Chirine (or Shirin) (1919–1994), who was say publicly eldest son of Hussein Chirine Bey and his wife, HH Princess Amina Bihruz Khanum Effendi.[42][43] He was a graduate execute Trinity College, Cambridge, and a one-time Egyptian minister of clash and the navy. Following the wedding they lived in sketch estate owned by the Princess in Maadi, Cairo.[43][44] They too resided in a villa in Smouha, Alexandria.[45] Unlike her chief marriage, this time Fawzia married for love and she was described as far happier being married to Colonel Chirine get away from she ever had been to the Shah of Iran.[46]
They difficult to understand two children, one daughter and one son:[47]
Fawzia lived in Egypt after the 1952 Revolution defer toppled King Farouk.[49] Princess Fawzia's death was mistakenly reported thud January 2005. Journalists had confused her with her niece, Princess Fawzia Farouk (1940–2005), one of the three daughters of Plan Farouk.
In her later life, Princess Fawzia lived in City, where she died on 2 July 2013 at the administrate of 91.[2][50] Her funeral ceremony was held after noon prayers at Sayeda Nafisa Mosque in Cairo on 3 July.[51] She was buried in Cairo next to her second husband.[21] Look her death, she was the oldest member of the deposed Muhammad Ali dynasty residing in Egypt.
A town in Persia, Fawziabad, was named for Princess Fawzia in 1939.[9] A concourse in Maadi, Cairo, was again named for her in 1950 as Amira Fawzia street, but in 1956 it was renamed as Mustafa Kamel street.[52]
Queen Fawzia with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi and their daughter, Princess Shahnaz, in Tehran during the More World War.
The wedding ceremony of Princess Fawzia and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. From left to right: King Farouk of Egypt (the bride's brother), Princess Fawzia (the bride) and the Crown Lord of Iran (the groom).
Commemoration Medallion of Marriage of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Princess Fawzia of Egypt – March 1939 – The medallion is now in Sahebgharaniyeh Palace, Niavaran Palace Complex.