#RIP Princess #Fawzia , The Beautiful Sad Rose of the #Nile

As she lived in complete silence , she departed our world in even more silence that does not suit a figure like her. After all she was not only the surviving sister of late King Farouk but she was also the ex-wife of Shah of Iran Reda Pahlavi.
Princess Fawzia Fouad passed away last July 2,2013 in complete silence in Alexandria. Her very small funeral that did not suit her was held last July 3, 2013 from El Saida Nafisa mosque in old Cairo. She was not buried in the royal cemetery besides her brother late King Farok in Rafai , she was buried in her husband's family "The Shereens" cemetery in Cairo.
Only very few relatives attended the funeral. Of course the media was not that interested in covering the funeral but I found couple of clips from the funeral.

The media was not that interested because it is not a secret that we are having political unrest in the country.
I do not know what to say about that beautiful princess honestly as I have always admired her as a person and as a royalty figure.

 In 1939 the 18 years old Princess Fawzia married crown the 20 years old prince of Iran Reda Pahlavi in one of the most famous political marriages in the Middle East in the 20th century. It was said that king Farouk tried to lead the Muslim world and at the same time Pahlavi was trying to support his rule with a regional alliance, a great one too.Of course my generation looks to it as when a Sunni princess married a Shia prince and everyone was happy for it.

Princess Fawzia gave a birth to Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi in 1940.

Princess Fawzia with Princess Shahnaz in Iran "Hassan Kamel"

Amazingly Princess Shahnaz is just like her mother , a media shy person who is living away from lights unlike the rest of her family.
Unfortunately the princess that became a young beautiful Queen returned Cairo in 1945 leaving her daughter in Tehran. The sad look of the princess since then became her trademark. Many people spoke about why the royal-imperial marriage did not work  but the young princess who came from different royal court and different country could not coup with her mother in law and sisters in law not to mention the young Shah had a mistress.
I once read the memories of Adel Thabet , King Farouk's relative that the young Queen was extremely depressed to the level that she fell sick, extremely sick. After knowing what happened to his sister , Farouk ordered her return immediately to Cairo to be divorced.
In 1949 she married colonel Ismail Chirine , another Mohamed Ali family member and an army officer/diplomat. They were considered the most cutest couple in Egypt then according my grandma.
The princess got two children : Nadia and Hussein.

After 1952 , the citizen Fawzia carrying her son Hussein "Kelisi"

It is worth to mention that Nadia Chirine was the first wife of famous actor Youssef Shaaban.
Princess Fawzia was like an acting first lady of Egypt till the short marriage of King Farouk from Queen Neriman especially with the departure of Queen Nazli to the States.
In 1952 the princess who was married to the minister of defense then was said to predict that something was going to happen and it did happen. The free officers did their own coup which was regarded later as the 1952 revolution n Egypt.
She refused to leave Egypt unlike the rest of sisters. She lived in Alexandria along with her husband and her children Nadia and Hussein.
Princess Fawzia led very extreme quiet life refusing to speak the media decades even in time of Mubarak. The only recent photo for the princess we found it in her daughter's ex-husband Ardeshir Zahedi's website during her visit I think to the States from a decade ago.

With princess Shahanz's ex-husband Ardeshir Zahedi

Of course my generation rediscovered her from the old photos thanks to the Nostalgia to the old black and white Egypt.
Now I know this is not a proper obituary for such personality.
Below one of the biggest flickr photo album dedicated Princess Fawzia. Please pray for her or read the Fataha on her soul.

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Can We Save Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra El Kheima ??

Culture activist Sally Soliman spoke on her twitter account about what happening and is happening to Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra El Kheima and it is not good.
First of all Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra is one of the most oldest and beautiful palaces remaining from Mohamed Ali Era itself. Mohamed Ali Pasha ordered its construction in 1808. The construction of that palace finished in 1812.

A painting showing the palace during the day of the Pasha

The Palace is built like the Palaces in Istanbul , extremely beautiful. 
It was neglected for years yet in 2000 the minister of culture then Farouk Hosni suddenly remembered. Not less than LE50 millions were allocated then for the restoration works in the neglect palace. About 14 experts in the restorations of palaces from Italy and France were brought in to help in its restoration.
In 2005 it was re-inaugurated by Mubarak in a very big celebration. Of course since then we knew that the palace was being rented for big galas , parties and weddings especially for the VIPs like former NDP leading member and policy maker Mohammed Kamel "He is still in the scene and last thing I know about him was being an adviser to Ahmed Shafik."
Now Soliman shocked us and told us online that part of the palace is collapsing.

 Part of the Palace , one of

its dooms collapsed in 2012 and nobody paid attention as usual. Al Ahram Daily published a report then with a picture and nobody moved a muscle. Yes I know we are in transitional period , difficult and soon on but this will be not forever the case.

It seems that the was corruption as usual in the restoration works. In 2010 Al Masry Al Youm published a report with a video about the neglect in the palace and how the paint used in the restoration works began to collapse after only 5 years of the restoration work.
Sally Soliman raised important matter. If you remember I wrote once that old original paintings were stolen in 2009 from the palace  and suddenly resurfaced in matter of days in some mystery. Up till now we do not know who stole those paintings and why they were returned and more important : Where the paintings are now !?
Allegedly they are in some warehouse.
Another thing she says during the restoration works there were rumors that the original crystal chandeliers from Beligum and Italy were being replaced by Egyptian ones.
Here is a slide show with photos from the beautiful palace that can bring to Egypt a lot of cash if you treat it like the Turks and their palaces. If the history talk does not work , the money talk does.


Below the series of Soliman's tweets in Arabic.

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