Sajida Talfah

Sajida Khairallah Talfah[1] (Arabic: ساجدة خيرالله طلفاح‎) (born June 24, 1937) is the widow and cousin of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,[2] and mother of two sons (Uday and Qusay) and three daughters (Raghad, Rana, and Hala).[3] She is the oldest daughter of Khairallah Talfah, her husband's maternal uncle. She was played by Shohreh Aghdashloo in the BBC adaptation House of Saddam in 2008, in which her character played a major role.

Sajida Talfah
Sajida Talfah, mid-late 1980s
Born	Sajida Khairallah Talfah June 24, 1937 Tikrit, Iraq
Nationality	Iraqi
Other names	Sajida Hussein
Occupation	Teacher, Former First Lady of Iraq
Known for	Wife and cousin of Saddam Hussein
Spouse(s)	Saddam Hussein ​ ​ (m. 1958; died 2006)​
Children	Uday Hussein (1964–2003; deceased) Qusay Hussein (1966–2003; deceased) Raghad Hussein (b. 1968) Rana Hussein (b. 1969) Hala Hussein (b. 1972)
Parent(s)	Khairallah Talfah (father)
Relatives	Adnan Khairallah (brother) Ilham Khairallah

As wife of Saddam Hussein, she was also the first lady of Iraq.[4]

Wife of Saddam Hussein

Sajida and her cousin Saddam had five children together. In 1964, their first son Uday was born followed by Qusay in 1966. In 1968 their first daughter Raghad was born, followed by Rana in 1969, and finally their youngest daughter Hala in 1972.

In 1986, Saddam married another woman, Samira Shahbandar, while still married to Sajida. Sajida was enraged, and Uday Hussein, son of Saddam and Sajida, was also angry over his father's new wife. Uday believed that his inheritance was endangered by the new wife. He also took it as an insult to his mother. In October 1988, at a party thrown in the honor of Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Uday beat and stabbed Kamel Hana Gegeo to death. Uday believed that it was Kamel who introduced Saddam and Samira, and that he arranged their meetings. Some say the murder of Gegeo was a request of Sajida. Although her husband married another woman, Sajida and Saddam never divorced.

Sajida hardly ever appeared in public with her husband, so for many years her existence was obscure to the Iraqi people. However, when rumors surfaced that Saddam had married another woman, and that his family life was now strained, more pictures and videos appeared in the Iraqi media of Saddam and Sajida, as well as them with their children. These pictures and videos were intended to make it seem as if Saddam's family life was not strained.

In 1989, Sajida's brother Adnan, an Iraqi Army General, was killed in a supposed helicopter crash in the desert during a sandstorm. Many people believe that Saddam ordered one of his bodyguards to plant a bomb in the helicopter because of Adnan's growing popularity. Sajida was furious, and blamed Saddam, believing her brother's death wasn't an accident.

Sajida, along with many members of her family, fled[5] Iraq in 1990 because of the Gulf War, leaving Iraq before the bombings began. There are many different reports on where the Hussein family settled, but a possible location is Switzerland. The Hussein family returned to Iraq after the war was over.

Post-invasion and disappearance

Sajida is believed to have fled to Qatar hours before the bombing of Baghdad began on 19 March 2003. Her youngest daughter Hala is believed to have gone with her, while Raghad and Rana Hussein fled to neighbouring Jordan.

In July 2004, she hired a multilingual and multi-national defence team of some 20 lawyers to defend her husband during his trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other offences. However, on August 8, 2005, Saddam's family announced that they had dissolved the Jordan-based legal team and that they had appointed Khalil al-Duleimi, the only Iraq-based member, as sole legal counsel.

On July 2, 2006, Iraq national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie announced that Sajida and her daughter Raghad are placed 16th and 17th on the Iraqi government's most wanted list for financing Sunni Muslim insurgents under Saddam's reign.

It is also believed that Sajida and her daughter Raghad have been funding the insurgency in Iraq with money they took with them as they fled the country. The lawyer leading Saddam's defence team stated that "the charges against Raghad and Sajida are baseless" and that Sajida "lives in her house in Qatar alone and has no contact with anyone, not even the lawyers". He also stated that Sajida "is undergoing medical treatment".

In 2015, Sajida's family denied rumors that she had died.

See also

• List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
• Samira Shahbandar, allegedly Saddam's second wife

References

1. Iraq sculpture destroyed by fire. BBC. 4 April 2008
2. Dimuro, Gina (2018-06-14). "The Mysterious Fate Of Saddam Hussein's First Wife And Cousin". All That's Interesting. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
3. No UK asylum for Saddam's family. BBC. 5 June 2003
4. "Saddam Hussein's wife, saddening story on the mystery she underwent in her Marriage with Saddam - Opera News". ke.opera.news. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
5. "Saddam's party: What's left today". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2021-02-02.

Further reading

• Mayada: Daughter of Iraq, a non-fiction book by Jean Sasson in which Sajida features as the accuser and torturer of one of the seventeen fellow prisoners of Mayada Al-Askari, whose stories the book tells.

External links

• "U.S. officials: Saddam's wife believed to have left Iraq". USA Today. April 14, 2003.
• Sajida Talfah's wife fled Iraq