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Princess Fawzia bint Fuad of Egypt (b. November 5, 1921), Princess of Egypt and former Empress of Iran, was a daughter of King Fuad I of Egypt and his second wife, Queen Nazli Sabri; she became the first wife of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. A sister of King Faruk I of Egypt, she was born at Ras al-Tine Palace, in Alexandria, Egypt. Her nickname was Wuzzy. At one point, Fawzia was known was one of the most beautiful women in the world.
Princess Fawzia married on March 16, 1939 at Cairo and later divorced November 17, 1948 H.I.M. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (1919 -1980). They had one daughter, Princess Shahnaz (born October 27, 1940; married 1st, Ardeshir Zahedi, one time Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to the United States and to the United Kingdom; married 2nd, Khosrow Djahanbani Qajar). Her marriage to the Shah of Iran was reportedly unhappy, and as she produced no male heir to the Pahlavi throne, they were divorced in 1948 whereupon Fawzia returned to Egypt. (The empress had obtained a secret Egyptian divorce in 1945 but it was deemed not legal in Iran.) Her daughter Shahnaz remained in Iran, notably rejecting King Faisal II's offer of marriage a year before his assassination and the abolition of the Iraqi monarchy. Although Fawzia never returned to Iran after she left, she sent flowers of condolence upon hearing of the Shah's death in 1980.
On March 28, 1949 in Cairo, she married Colonel Ismail Husain Shirin Bey (1919-1994), the onetime Minister of War, and had two more children.
Her half-sister Princess Fawkia's son Ahmad Fakhri Bey was married to Gloria Rubio y Alatorre (1912-1980), better known as Gloria Guinness, one of the great beauties of the 1960s who was one of the "swans" beloved by Truman Capote.
Princess Fawzia is still the senior member of the deposed royal family remaining in Egypt. Her death was mistakenly reported in January 2005; journalists had confused her with her niece Princess Fazia (Fevziye), daughter of former King Farouk.
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