“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 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, 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.

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.

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, an 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.

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.

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).

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. 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."

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.

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 one iranian princess nineteenth century, after which a written memoir remains (under the title Crown of Sorrows: 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:

The Shah of Iran, who ruled the country for 47 years, was the most educated person in Iran, who knew several languages, loved geography, drawing, poetry, and the author of books about his travels. At the age of seventeen, he inherited the throne, but he could only take power with the help of weapons. It was extraordinary person, who managed to carry out small, from the point of view of our time, but significant for his time, reforms in the country.

As a literate person, he understood that only an educated and developed Iran would be able to exist on an equal footing with other countries in this world. He was a fan of European culture, but he realized that the religious fanaticism that raged in the country would not allow him to turn his dreams into reality.

Nevertheless, much was accomplished during his lifetime. The telegraph appeared in Iran, schools began to open, the army was reformed, french school, a prototype of the future university, where they studied medicine, chemistry, geography.

Nasser Qajar Theater

Nasser Qajar knew perfectly well French, was familiar with French culture, in particular with the theater, but he was first of all the Shah of Iran, a Muslim. Therefore, his dream of a full-fledged theater could not come true. But he, together with Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Naggashbashi, creates a state theater, the troupe of which consisted of men. In the photos of the actors, you can see the famous "Iranian princess Anis al Dolyah." Yes, this is a princess, but not a real one, but performed by a male actor.

The Iranian theater did not play productions from the life of the people. His satirical repertoire consisted entirely of plays describing the court and social life. All roles were played by men. This is not an isolated case. Think of Japanese kabuki theater where only men play. True, the Japanese actors played in masks, and it was hardly possible to see their fused eyebrows and mustaches. By the way, thick, fused eyebrows among the inhabitants of Arab and Central Asian countries have always been considered a sign of beauty, both for women and men.

Founder of Iranian theater

Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Naggashbashi, a well-known person in Iran, who is considered the founder of the Iranian theater, was the head of the first state theater. All roles were played by men, only after 1917 were women allowed to be actresses and participate in performances.

Old photos

Nasser ad-Din was fond of photography from his youth. He had his own laboratory, where he personally printed pictures. He photographed himself, he had a French photographer who took pictures of him. In the late sixties of the XIX century, the Sevryugins brothers open their studio in Tehran, one of them - Anton - becomes a court photographer.

He removed everything, Sevryugin helped him in this. He kept photos of his wives, close associates, theater artists, his trips, solemn meetings, military operations in the palace safe. After the Iranian revolution, all his archives were declassified, and the pictures fell into the hands of journalists. Who is depicted in these photographs is now difficult to say. Do not rely on the Internet. Signatures for the same photos on different sites differ dramatically. Their reliability is highly questionable.

On one German site, an interesting commentary came across to an article about Nasser al-Din, which was sent by a resident of Iran. He writes that the khan did not like women, therefore, in order to look like men and thus please the shah, they painted on mustaches. It is difficult to say how true this is, but it partially explains the clearly male faces in women's clothes and the fact that an outsider (photographer) takes pictures of the khan in a circle of masculine women.

Who is Iranian Princess Anis

Anis al Dolyakh is most likely the name of the heroine of a play that was played out with some acting characters By different situations(accidents from life). Something like modern TV shows. Each actor played one role for many years.

Shah Nasser Qajar had an official wife, Munir Al-Khan, who bore him children, including his heir, Mozafereddin Shah. She was from a noble and influential family with considerable power. There is no doubt that the Shah had a harem. But who lived in his harem, it is impossible to say for sure now.

Photos of the Shah's concubines

Photos of the Iranian princess al Dolyah and the Shah's concubines, posted on the Internet, are most likely pictures of theater artists or excerpts from plays. Coming to any theater, we see in its foyer the composition of the troupe in photographs, where you can often see actors made up, that is, excerpts from their roles.

Let's not forget that the shah was a supporter of everything European, but remained a Muslim dictator who did not tolerate any dissent. Departure from the norms of the Koran (in this case photographing women with bare faces) would alienate thousands of his devoted subjects. This would not fail to take advantage of his enemies, of whom he had plenty. He was assassinated more than once.

Shah visited many European countries, including Russia. He was fascinated by Russian ballet. He could not stage something similar in his country, so he creates a play about it, dressed in ballet tutus Iranian princess Anis (photo below) and other alleged women. By the way, the shah wrote books about his travels, which were published in Europe and Russia. Perhaps he also wrote plays for his theatre.

What does the name Anis mean?

Why does an Iranian princess have such strange name Anise? This is no coincidence, it was during the reign of Shah Nasser ad-Din that two religious rebels who dared to recognize the Koran as obsolete were shot. This is the founder of a new religion, called Babism, Baba Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, as well as his ardent follower and assistant Mirza Muhammad Ali Zunuzi (Anis). There is a legend that during the execution, carried out by a detachment of 750 Christians, Baba, in a strange way, ended up in his cell, and Anis was not touched by bullets.

It is the name Anis that the satirical Iranian princess bears. Each time it caused laughter and bullying. By dressing your opponent in women's clothing, which in itself is a shame for a Muslim, the Shah took revenge on those who went against the Koran. We do not know the names of other "inhabitants" of the Shah's harem, maybe they can also tell a lot. Of course, these are only assumptions, what really happened, we will never know.