Fawzia فوزية | |
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Queen consort of Iran | |
Tenure | 16 September 1941 – 17 November 1948 |
Born | Ras el-Tin Palace, Alexandria, Sultanate of Egypt | 5 November 1921
Died | 2 July 2013 Alexandria, Egypt | (aged 91)
Burial | Al-Rifa'i Mosque, Cairo, Egypt |
Spouse | |
Issue |
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House | Muhammad Ali (by birth) Pahlavi (by marriage) |
Father | Fuad I of Egypt |
Mother | Nazli Sabri |
Religion | Sunni Islam[1] |
Fawzia of Egypt (Arabic: فوزية; 5 November 1921 – 2 July 2013), also known as 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 of Fuad I, seventh son of Ismail the Magnificent. Her marriage to the Iranian Crown Prince in 1939 was a political deal: it consolidated Egyptian power and influence in the Middle East, while bringing respectability to the new Iranian regime by association with the much more prestigious Egyptian royal house. Fawzia obtained an Egyptian divorce in 1948, under which their one daughter Princess Shahnaz would be brought up in Iran. Fawzia, who was known as the "sad queen" in the press, lived in isolation and silence after the 1952 Egyptian revolution and never published her memories of the court of Iran and Egypt.
In 1949, Fawzia married Colonel Ismail Chirine, an Egyptian diplomat, with whom she had a son and a daughter.