Princess Fawzia, Shah’s first wife, dies in Egypt

Reuters: Princess Fawzia Fuad, a daughter and sister of Egyptian kings and the first wife of the last Shah of Iran, died on Tuesday in Alexandria, a member of the former royal family and a senior local police officer said. ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Princess Fawzia Fuad, a daughter and sister of Egyptian kings and the first wife of the last Shah of Iran, died on Tuesday in Alexandria, a member of the former royal family and a senior local police officer said.

Her death at the age of 91 was also reported on a Facebook page associated with her nephew, King Fuad II, Egypt’s deposed and exiled last monarch.

Fawzia, the glamorous sister of Fuad’s father King Farouk, married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1939, before he acceded the throne in Tehran. They divorced nine years later.

Fawzia remarried, to an Egyptian army officer, on her return from her failed marriage to the Shah. He went on to marry twice more and died in Cairo in 1980, less than a year after he was deposed in the Islamic revolution.

“The royal family of Egypt announces to the nation that it is mourning the passing of Her Royal Highness Princess Fawzia Fuad, daughter of His Majesty King Fuad I and sister of His Majesty King Faruk I and aunt of his Majesty King Fuad II and the former Empress of Iran,” read a statement on the Facebook page.

“The funeral procession for Her Royal Highness Princess Fawzia will start after noon prayer on Wednesday,” it added.

Relatives Melekper Toussoun and Mohamed Yakin, also confirmed the death to Reuters. Yakin said she would be buried in Cairo.

(Reporting by Abdelrahman Youssef and Haitham Fathi in Alexandria and Shadia Nasralla, Alastair Macdonald and Patrick Werr in Cairo; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)