Iranian princess Anis al Dolyah: a man or a woman in the photo, what is known about the life of the princess. Queen, princess, doctor: three women revered by feminists in the Muslim world

Last time we talked about the three main favorites of the Shah, in this issue we will continue to get acquainted with the family of the ruler of Iran. Nasser ad-Din Shah had more than a dozen daughters, I will tell you about the life of four princesses.

Princess Esmat al-Dawla

Her mother was also of royal blood, Esmat had a strong and independent character, she became the first Iranian woman to learn to play the piano. She loved literature and tried herself in this field.

Very young Esmat (left) next to her older sister and father (find the shah)

Esmat in his youth

Esmat often wore clothes in European style. Take a look, Esmat in a white dress is leaning on the balustrade, a gazebo can be seen in the distance, and a dog is crouching at her feet - a direct example of European painting.

Princess Esmat al-Dawla

Esmat had two sons and two daughters.

Esmat with his mother* and little daughter Fakhr al-Taj (Shah's granddaughter)

Esmat al-Dawla with his daughter (Shah's granddaughter) Fakhr al-Taj

Esmat is engaged in literature

Princess Esmat al-Dawla

She died of malaria in 1905

Mourning for Esmat

Turan Agha Fakhr al-Daula and Mist Agha Forug al-Daula - Shah's daughters

The youngest of the princesses (they are sisters, from the same mother **), Fakhr (1862 - 1892), was interested in art, read a lot, wrote poetry and wrote down for us her father's favorite story Amir Arsalan, which they told the Shah before going to bed. Fakhr adored the Shah and often accompanied him on trips around the country, and being apart, she maintained constant correspondence with her father.

Turan Agha Fakhr (left) and Mist Agha Forug (right)

Turan Agha Fakhr died at a very young age from tuberculosis. Contemporaries noted the refined and refined beauty of the Shah's daughter.

Turan Agha Fakhr

The eldest - Forug (1850-1937) also wrote poetry, she gave birth to three sons and four daughters. At the beginning of the 20th century, she became actively interested in politics and participated in constitutional activities.

Forug al-Dawla

Laila Khanum (Shah's wife, left), Fakhr al-Daula (left) and Forug al-Daula (center)
(Laila Khanum is not the mother of the sisters, their mother** had already died by that time)

Forug al-Dawla (center) dressed as a dervish

hilarious moment - one of the shah's daughters and his grandson

Anis-al-Daula (first from the left in the bottom row), Forug (third from the left in the bottom row) hugs one of the Shah's wives Laila Khanum, Fakhr (third from the left in the second row)

Taj al-Saltana or Zahra Khanom Taj es-Saltane (1884 - 25 January 1936)
- the most famous daughter of Nasser ad-Din Shah from his wife Turan es-Saltane.

Zahra Khanom Taj es Saltane

Taj es-Saltane is a beauty, a feminist, a writer who left memories of life at the court of her father and after his murder.
The memoirs have come down to us in an incomplete copy, and this is the only evidence of this kind authored by a woman from the royal family of Iran at that time.

Taj's early childhood memories are full of bitterness. She was brought up by nannies, governesses and mentors, was separated from her mother, whom she saw only twice a day. If the father was in Tehran, then once a day, usually around noon, her a short time brought to see him. In his memoirs, Taj mentions the need for close contact with the mother and the benefits of breastfeeding.

At the age of seven, a girl receives elementary education at the royal school, but in 1893 she was forced to leave school and study with private tutors, some of whom she mentions in detail in her book. The style and content of the memoirs betrays her familiarity with Persian and European literature and history. She was also taught how to play the piano and tar, painting and the art of embroidery.

Zahra Khanom Taj es-Saltane as a child

When Taj was eight, negotiations began for her marriage. At the beginning of 1893, at the age of nine, Taj es-Saltana was engaged to Amir Hussein Khan Shodzha-al-Saltane, in December of the same year a wedding contract was signed. The groom, too, was still a child "probably about eleven or twelve." But the marriage was not consummated, the couple celebrated the wedding only in 1897, a year after the assassination of Nasser ad-Din Shah, when the Taj was thirteen years old.

Unknown artist, Zahra Khanom Taj es-Saltan in European dress

All marriages of women from the royal family were for reasons of profit, there was no talk of love. However, Taj was looking forward to the marriage, hoping to gain relative independence. married woman. After the murder of her father, all the royal wives with children were transported to one of the residences of Sarvestan, where Taj es-Saltana felt almost like a prisoner.

Taj advocates marriage for love, criticizing contractual unions in which well-being is not taken into account at all married couple. In the first years of their married life, she and her husband were teenagers still playing children's games, and young wife was offended by the neglect of her husband, which began almost immediately after the wedding night. Like most men from noble Qajar families, Hussein Khan had many lovers - men and women; and Taj justifies her own flirting and affairs as revenge for her husband's neglect and infidelity. Aref Qazvini, Iranian poet, composer and musician is the most famous of the men mentioned in the memoirs. He dedicated beautiful daughter his shah famous poem"Ey Taj".

Taj gave birth to four children - two sons and two daughters, but one boy died in infancy.

Zahra Khanom Taj es-Saltan with children

Taj also mentions a dangerous abortion undertaken after she found out about her husband's venereal disease. Ironically, the physical and emotional consequences of the abortion were considered manifestations of hysteria - a diagnosis that granted her the freedom to leave her home: "Doctors ordered to go outside in order to unwind ... due to illness, I was provided with some mitigation of the usual domestic confinement."

She spoke about the interest of her contemporaries in Europe and wrote in her memoirs: "I madly wanted to go to Europe." But, unlike her older sister Akhtar, she never managed to go there. While writing her memoirs in 1914, she tried to commit suicide three times.

Taj es-Saltan

A troubled first marriage eventually ended in divorce in December 1907. Taj does not discuss any subsequent marriages in his memoirs, but as mentioned, the manuscript is incomplete. Her free association with men and her romantic (or even sexual) relationships with them, created her reputation as a "free woman" (she was considered a prostitute).

Taj es-Saltan

In March 1908, Taj remarries, the marriage lasted only a few months, and in July 1908 a divorce followed. In more later years Taj es-Saltane became actively involved in constitutional and feminist activities. Along with some other women of the royal family of Iran, she was a member of the Women's Association during the Constitutional Revolution in Persia 1905-1911. and fought for women's rights.

In 1909, she marries for the third time, it is not known how this marriage ended, but in 1921 Taj describes herself as a single, unmarried woman.

Memories paint us a deeply unhappy life, and a series of letters written by Taj to various prime ministers in the early 1920s in order to restore her pension testifies to her financial difficulties.

Taj es-Saltan

In 1922, Taj accompanied one of her daughters to Baghdad, where her son-in-law, an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was appointed. She died in obscurity, probably in Tehran in 1936.

to be continued

* - Princess Khojasteh Khanom Qajar "Tadj al-Dowla," aghdi
** - Khazen al-Dowla, sigheh

Sources:

Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic, Lois Beck, Guity Nashat, University of Illinois Press, 2004

Liminalities of Gender and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Iranian Photography: Desirous Bodies by Staci Gem Scheiwiller, Routledge, 2016

Sexual Politics in Modern Iran by Janet Afary, Cambridge University Press, 2009

Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers, Farzaneh Milani, I.B.Tauris, 1992

Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896, Abbas Amanat, I.B.Tauris, 1997

The Encyclopaedia Iranica

Recently, an incredible "beauty" struck the Internet. A photo of an Iranian princess, whose name was Anis al Dolyah, appeared on the Web. It is known that the fourth Shah of Iran, Nasser ad-Din Shah Qajar, photographed his wives with an open face, and thanks to this, information about the beauty of that time has come down to our days.

IN Lately By social networks many photographs of Iranian princesses swept through, which are accompanied by an explanatory text, which says that this is a symbol of the beauty of Iran in those years.
And many, probably, believed in the very specific tastes of the Iranian ruler Nasser ad-Din Shah Qajar, because these princesses are attributed to his harem.
But did oriental beauties really look like that?

What is known about the biography of the princess
Anis al-Dolyah was the beloved wife of the fourth Shah of Iran, Nasser ad-Din Shah Qajar, who ruled from 1848 to 1896. Nasser had a huge harem of wives, whom he, contrary to the laws of Iran of that time, photographed with open faces. It is thanks to Nasser ad-Din's passion for photography and his easy attitude to strict rules modern world learned about the ideals of beauty in Western Asia in the 19th century.

Anis al-Dolyakh was considered the most beautiful and sexy woman of that era. The fat lady with fused eyebrows, thick mustaches and a tired look from under her brows had almost 150 fans. However, Anis belonged only to the Shah. For admirers unearthly beauty al-Dolyah could only dream of her, it became known to comandir.com. Some men, by the way, could not come to terms with the evil fate and laid hands on themselves because of unrequited love that tormented their hearts.
In 19th-century Iran, a woman was considered beautiful if she had abundant facial hair and was very fat. The girls from the harem were specially fed a lot and were practically not allowed to move so that they would gain weight. Anis al-Dolyakh met all the standards of attractiveness of that time.

Curious fact. Once, Nasser ad-Din Shah Qajar, during a visit to St. Petersburg, visited a Russian ballet. The Shah was so impressed with the ballerinas that upon arrival home he ordered all his numerous wives to have skirts resembling tutus sewn on. Since then, the Nasser spouses have walked exclusively in short fluffy skirts, round the clock opening their husband's eyes to mouth-watering folded legs.

What's the catch?
why are these women so different from the concept of beauty of the time, which we could read about and even see in films?
In fact, these are not Iranian princesses, not the wives of the Shah and ... not women at all! These photographs show the actors of the first state theater, created by Shah Nasreddin, who was a great admirer European culture. This troupe played satirical plays only for courtiers and nobility. The organizer of this theater was Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Naggashbashi, who is considered one of the founders of modern Iranian theater.

The plays of that time were played only by men, since until 1917 Iranian women were forbidden to perform on stage. That's the whole secret of the "Iranian princesses": yes, this is the Shah's harem, but in a theatrical production.

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for discovering this beauty. Thanks for the inspiration and goosebumps.
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At all times, the earth was filled with all sorts of myths, and with the advent of the Internet in our lives, true and not very stories instantly become known to the general public. Probably, you have already heard about the "incomparable Anis al-Doly", because of which 13 young people took their own lives, and even saw her photo. And what can you say about grandmother Melania Trump: are they similar to the alleged granddaughter or not?

website did a little research and found out what is really behind some popular internet stories.

Myth #16: The Iranian princess Qajar was a symbol of beauty in the early 20th century. 13 young people committed suicide because she did not agree to become their wife

You have probably seen a photo of "Princess Qajar" or "Anis al-Dolyah" with such a caption. This woman does not fit into modern beauty standards even in Iran itself, but some people believe that more than 100 years ago, everything was very different.

There is some truth in this, but it is worth asking another question: did such a princess really exist? Yes and no. A woman in an outfit resembling ballet tutu, named Taj al-Dola, and she was the wife of Nasser ad-Din Shah from the Qajar dynasty.

There is an opinion that the photo does not real wife Shah, and a male actor, but this is probably nothing more than speculation, because Taj was a real historical figure.

Princess Qajar is a symbol of beauty in Persia (Iran) 13 young men killed themselves because she rejected them. pic.twitter.com/DYvOd41LT1
— Creatures Of Earth (@culture_pix) November 2, 2017

And here is another “Princess Qajar” (on the left), whose photo you could also see with the same text about the symbol of beauty and 13 unfortunate young people. This lady was the daughter of Taj al-Dola and her name was Ismat al-Dola.

Of course, both mother and daughter were not at all fatal beauties who broke the hearts of numerous fans. If only because they lived in a Muslim country and hardly had the opportunity to communicate with strangers, let alone choose a husband.

As for the woman on the right, she was also called Taj and she was the sister of Ismat al-Dol by her father - he, like many eastern rulers, had more than one wife. Taj al-Saltaneh, also known as Zahra Khanum, went down in history as an artist, writer and the first Iranian feminist who was not afraid to take off her hijab, put on European clothes and divorce her husband.

Myth #15: Nikola Tesla worked as a swimming instructor.

— Prof Jeff Cunningham (@cunninghamjeff) August 29, 2017

And this is what a real giant hornet looks like. The true size of the "tiger bee" is also impressive, but, fortunately, it is not as huge as its model, which we are incredibly happy about.

Myth #12: The whale that died from eating garbage

A photo that many took for image of the dead a whale with a lot of garbage in its stomach is actually an installation created by Greenpeace in the Philippines in order to draw people's attention to the problem of ocean pollution. But, unfortunately, this happens in reality, and not only whales and not only in Pacific region so we have a lot to think about.

Myth № 11: "Ancient astronaut" on the wall of the New Cathedral in Salamanca (Spain)

Where did the astronaut on the wall of the cathedral, built in the 16th century, come from? It's simple: during the restoration in 1992, the artist Geronimo Garcia (Jeronimo Garcia) decided to depict something unusual and carved a figurine in a spacesuit, and besides it, a faun who holds an ice cream cone in his paw.

Myth #10: The description of a photo of a wolf pack

“A wolf pack: the first 3 are the old or sick, they give the pace to the entire pack. If it was the other way round, they would be left behind, losing contact with the pack. In case of an ambush they would be sacrificed. Then come 5 strong ones, the front line. pic.twitter.com/bh1PtM7nV1
— LoneWanderer ♔🇭🇷 (@MMLoneWanderer) June 16, 2018

This picture also "went to the people" with a description taken from someone's head and not corresponding to reality. Allegedly, the first three wolves in the pack are the oldest and weakest, the five following them are the strongest, in the middle is the rest of the pack, another five strong animals close the group, and behind all comes the leader who controls the situation.

However, the author of the photo, Chadden Hunter, explains that the flock hunts bison in this way, and in front is not the top three of the weakest animals, but the alpha female.

Myth #9: The she-wolf protects the male's throat in a fight.

Probably, you have seen this photo more than once with a touching caption that the she-wolf “hides”, pretending to be frightened, while she herself protects the male’s throat at this time, knowing that she will not be touched in a fight. Alas, this is also nothing more than a beautiful fairy tale.

A rather popular “no photoshop” photo turned out to be the result of a merger of two different shots. The sky was borrowed from Dutch photographer Marieke Mandemaker and superimposed on a photo of the Crimean Bridge in Moscow.

Myth #7: The "Gates of Heaven" captured by the Hubble Telescope

“Unusual photo that amazed scientists” turned out to be a work graphic designer Adam Ferriss, which, however, was based on a real image of the Omega Nebula (aka the Swan Nebula).

This is what the original photo looks like. By the way, this nebula can be observed in an amateur telescope - in shape it resembles a ghostly swan floating across the sky.

Myth No. 6: In China, fake ... cabbage

It seems that we are already accustomed to the idea that in our time absolutely everything can be faked. And in fact, cabbage made from some kind of liquid substance is very much like a real one. Is it being sold to unsuspecting buyers? Not at all.

Such "fake" cabbage, as well as other "products", is just a dummy at catering points in China, Korea, Japan and some other countries.

Myth #5: There was no hotel room for Arnold Schwarzenegger and he had to sleep outside next to his own statue.

No sooner had “Iron Arnie” joked on his Instagram, sharing this photo with the significant caption “How times have changed,” when it was immediately posted on another resource, where they made up a whole story that the actor and the former governor of California were not allowed into the hotel and he had to sleep right on the ground.

Of course, Schwarzenegger did not spend the night on the street. And the photo was taken not near the hotel, but near the city's convention center, opposite the entrance to which there is a statue depicting a young Arnold in his best shape.

Soraya went down in history as the woman who caused the king of Afghanistan to lose his throne. Although in fact, of course, the opponents of the king used Soraya as a pretext: she allegedly disgraced the country by removing the hijab in public, and leads women astray.

Soraya really actively “knocked down” women, moreover, with the full support of her husband. In her famous “You Afghan Women…” speech, the Queen stated that women make up the majority of Afghanistan's population and are completely out of the spotlight. She encouraged them to learn to read and write and to participate in community life.

In 1921, Soraya created an organization for the protection of women and opened a school for girls near the royal palace itself. At the same time, the queen's mother began to publish the first women's magazine in Afghanistan, dedicated to the very a wide range issues ranging from everyday life and upbringing of children to politics. A couple of years later, a second women's school had to be opened - there were enough students, as well as hospitals for women and children. Soraya's husband, Padishah Amanullah, issued a decree obliging government officials to educate their daughters.

A woman of such progressive views grew up, of course, not in the most traditional family.

Soraya was the granddaughter of a famous Pashtun poet, the daughter of an equally famous Afghan writer, and her mother, Asma Rasia, was a feminist by conviction. True, this did not prevent her from blessing her daughter's marriage at the age of fourteen: it was at that age that Soraya married Prince Amanullah. On the other hand, the prince could not have waited otherwise, and the king-husband is a wonderful chance to improve the position of women in the country.

Against all custom, Soraya became only wife Amanullah. When he ascended the throne, she was only twenty years old, and both spouses were full of strength, energy and, most importantly, desire to lead the country along the path of progress. But first, foreign policy problems had to be dealt with. Soraya accompanied her husband to the rebellious, seceding provinces, risking her life; during the Revolutionary War she visited hospitals to cheer up wounded soldiers.

At the same time, her husband began to actively introduce Soraya into social and political life. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan, the queen was present at receptions and military parades, but, most importantly, ministerial meetings could no longer do without her. Sometimes Amanullah joked that, of course, he was a king, but it would be more correct to say that he was a minister to his queen. He respected and adored the wife of the padishah immensely.

In 1928, he publicly removed the hijab from his queen and invited all the women of the country to do the same.

It was this act that enabled the clerical circles (and, as many believe, the British, who did not like the communication of the royal family with the Soviet government) to incite the Afghan tribes to revolt. As a result, Amanullah was forced to abdicate and leave the country with his family.

The path ran through India. Wherever Amanullah left the train or car with his family, royal family greeted with stormy applause and shouts: “Soraya! Soraya!" The young queen managed to become a legend. There, in India, Soraya gave birth to one of the daughters and named after this country. Rest of life former king and the Queen spent in Italy.

Zahra Khanum Taj es-Saltane: with a crown of sorrow

Princess Zahra of the Qajar dynasty is the only Iranian princess of the nineteenth century who left behind a written memoir (titled Crown of Sorrow: Memoirs of a Persian Princess). Her father was the same Nasreddin Shah, who unrestrainedly photographed the inhabitants of his palace, her mother was a woman named Turan es-Saltane. Zahra was taken away from her mother early and handed over to nannies. She saw her mother twice a day; if her father was in Tehran, she also visited him once for a short time.

For his time, the shah was a progressive man and tried to see his children. But, of course, such attention was not enough for children.

From the age of seven to nine, Zahra studied at the royal school, but after the engagement it became indecent, and the girl continued her studies already in the palace, with mentors. Yes, her father arranged her engagement at the age of nine, and only six months later he signed for her marriage contract. The groom-husband was eleven, he was the son of a military leader, an alliance with which was important to the shah. Fortunately, the parents did not insist that the children begin married life immediately. Both Zahra and her little husband lived almost the same way as before marriage.

When Zahra was thirteen, her father was killed, and her husband took her to his house and consummated the marriage. The princess was very disappointed with her marriage. The teenage husband made endless lovers and lovers, and his wife barely made time even just for conversations at the dinner table. the princess felt neither his love nor her own, and decided that she owed him nothing. Moreover, she was considered a beauty and many men dreamed of her love.

It is known that the famous Iranian poet Aref Qazvini dedicated his poem to the beauty of Zahra.

From her husband, Zahra gave birth to four children - two daughters and two sons. One of the boys died in infancy. When Zahra was pregnant for the fifth time, she learned that her husband had a sexually transmitted disease that could seriously affect the development of the fetus. She decided to have an abortion - at that time a very dangerous procedure, both physically and in terms of possible consequences. After the abortion, she was so ill that the doctors decided that she had hysteria, and ordered her to leave the house more often for walks. It was on these walks that it is believed that she began to have novels. At the same time, Zahra sought a divorce from her unloved husband.

After the divorce, she was married twice more, but unsuccessfully. Men in Iran at that time did not differ much from each other: they could court flowery, but, having got a woman, they simply began to court another. Taking into account the fact that Zahra also defiantly refused to wear a hijab, she developed a reputation in Iranian high society terrible.

Behind the eyes (and sometimes in the eyes) she was called a whore.

Frustrated with trying to dissolve into family life, Zahra began to participate in public. During the Constitutional Revolution in Iran, she entered, along with some other princesses, the Women's Association, among the goals of which was universal female education and normal access to medicine. Alas, in the end, she died in poverty and obscurity, and no one can even name the exact place of her death.

Farruhru Parsa: Nurtured her killers

One of the first female doctors in Iran, the first and last female minister in the country, Parsa was shot after the Islamic Revolution. Ironically, the leaders of the revolution received their education at the universities opened in Iran by Parsa, and studied at the expense of her department. Whether they understood it or not, there is not a penny of gratitude in their actions.

Farrukhrou's mother, Fakhre-Afag, was the editor of Iran's first women's magazine and fought for women's right to education. She was punished for her activity: she was exiled with her husband, Farrukhdin Parsa, to the city of Qom under house arrest. There, in exile, the future minister was born. She was named after her father.

After the change of prime minister, the Pars family was allowed to return to Tehran, and Farrukhr was able to receive a normal education. She trained as a doctor, but worked as a biology teacher at the Jeanne d'Arc School (for girls, of course). Farrukhru actively continued her mother's work and became a well-known person in Iran. In less than forty years, she was elected to parliament.

Her husband, Ahmad Shirin Sohan, was as surprised as he was proud.

As a member of Parliament, she won the right to vote for women, and soon, becoming Minister of Education, she was able to build up the country with schools and universities, giving girls and boys from poor families the opportunity to study. The Ministry of Pars also subsidized theological schools.

Thanks to the activity of Pars and other feminists, the law “On the Protection of the Family” was in force in the country, which regulated the procedure for divorce and raised the age of marriage to eighteen years. Following Farrukhru, many women decided on a career as an official. After the revolution, the age of marriage dropped back to thirteen, and the age of criminal responsibility for girls to nine (for boys it starts at fourteen).

Before the execution, the deposed minister wrote a letter to the children saying: “I am a doctor, therefore I am not afraid of death. Death is just a moment and nothing more. I am more ready to meet death with open arms than to live in disgrace, being forcibly covered "I will not bow the knee to those who expect me to feel remorse for half a century of my struggle for equality between men and women."

Another one sad story women of the East:

“Sometimes a meme pops up on social networks - a corpulent Middle Eastern woman with a noticeable mustache and in a hijab and a comment: a Persian princess because of her love for whom 13 young people committed suicide. And of course, in the comments, it’s a complete yabnevdul. , and as always, no one is interested in a real living person, because this person is a woman... So I'll tell you about her.

So, Princess Zahra Khanum Taj al Sultane from the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Iran from 1785 to 1925. She was born in 1883 in Tehran. Father - Nasreddin Shah, mother Turan al Sultane. She grew up in a harem, rarely saw her parents. She was taught at home - literacy, prayers, embroidery, playing Persian musical instruments, and like a nod of modernity - on the piano. At the age of nine she was engaged. The groom was eleven. He was the son of an influential military commander, whose support Nasreddin Shah wanted to enlist.

Zahra Khanum Taj lived interesting life and wrote a lengthy memoir. She achieved a divorce from her husband, not wanting to endure his betrayal, which for that time and that society. was unheard of. She was the first at the Shah's court to open her face and began to wear European clothes. After the divorce, she was married twice more and dedicated poetry to her. famous poet Aref Qazvini. She ran the first literary salon in Tehran, where western-looking intellectuals gathered. She was one of the founders of the first feminist organization in Iran, the Women's Liberation League, around 1910.

Zahra Khanum Taj has never left Iran except for a trip with youngest daughter to Baghdad. She died in Tehran in 1936. Her memoirs were published in 1996 under the title Crown of Sorrows: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from Harem to Modern Times 1884-1914.
From FB Rina Gonzalez Gallego

"Taj es-Saltane is a beauty, a feminist, a writer who left memories of life at the court of her father and after his murder.

The memoirs have come down to us in an incomplete copy, and this is the only evidence of this kind authored by a woman from the royal family of Iran at that time.

Taj's early childhood memories are full of bitterness. She was brought up by nannies, governesses and mentors, was separated from her mother, whom she saw only twice a day. If her father was in Tehran, then once a day, usually around noon, she was brought to see him for a short time. In his memoirs, Taj mentions the need for close contact with the mother and the benefits of breastfeeding.

At the age of seven, the girl receives her primary education at the royal school, but in 1893 she is forced to leave school and study with private tutors, some of whom she mentions in detail in her book. The style and content of the memoirs betrays her familiarity with Persian and European literature and history. She was also taught how to play the piano and tar, painting and the art of embroidery.

All marriages of women from the royal family were for reasons of profit, there was no talk of love. However, Taj was looking forward to the conclusion of the marriage, hoping to gain the relative independence of a married woman. After the murder of her father, all the royal wives with children were transported to one of the residences of Sarvestan, where Taj es-Saltana felt almost like a prisoner.

Taj advocates marriage for love, criticizing contractual unions that do not take into account the welfare of the couple at all. In the first years of their married life, she and her husband were teenagers still playing children's games, and the young wife was offended by her husband's neglect, which began almost immediately after the wedding night. Like most men from noble Qajar families, Hussein Khan had many lovers - men and women; and Taj justifies her own flirting and affairs as revenge for her husband's neglect and infidelity. Aref Qazvini, an Iranian poet, composer and musician, is the most famous of the men mentioned in the memoirs. He dedicated his famous poem "Ey Taj" to the Shah's beautiful daughter."

Taj gave birth to four children - two sons and two daughters, but one boy died in infancy.

In March 1908, Taj remarries, the marriage lasted only a few months, and in July 1908 a divorce followed. In later years, Taj es-Saltane became actively involved in constitutional and feminist activities. She was a member of the Women's Association along with some other women of the royal family of Iran during the Constitutional Revolution in Persia 1905-1911. and fought for women's rights.

In 1909, she marries for the third time, it is not known how this marriage ended, but in 1921 Taj describes herself as a single, unmarried woman.

Memories paint us a deeply unhappy life, and a series of letters written by Taj to various prime ministers in the early 1920s in order to restore her pension testifies to her financial difficulties.

In 1922, Taj accompanied one of her daughters to Baghdad, where her son-in-law, an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was appointed. She died in obscurity, probably in Tehran in 1936."