Double divorce

November 19, 1944

The New York Times' reporter, Clifton Daniel writes "that the simultaneous dissolution by divorce of two notably unsuccessful royal marriages is an event probably unprecedented in history." King Farouk of Egypt and the Shah of Iran have respectively divorced their wives largely due to the births of daughters. Farouk has three daughters by Queen Farida, and the Shah' has one daughter by his wife, Fawzia, who happens to be Farouk's sister.
It has been "public knowledge" for several years that both marriages were in trouble. Empress Fawzia, is is said, did not like Teheran. She considered Iran's capital to be a backwater in comparison with cosmopolitan Cairo. Fawzia has been living in her brother's palace for nearly two years now. The "grave, shy and quiet empress" often accompanied her brother to palace functions, while his wife, Queen Farida was scarcely seen with her husband. Her "role in public life became a minor one."
Fawzia's marriage to the Shah of Iran was considered to be a major diplomatic achievement, uniting two branches of the Islam faith. The Egyptian royal family belongs are Sunnis, while the Iranian imperial family are Shiites.
Iranian-Egyptian relations are not likely to be affected by the divorces. It is presumed that the two divorces were announced simultaneously to "dispose of two embarrassing problems at a single stroke and thereby try to minimize public opinion."
Both sovereigns are expected to remarry as neither has a male heir. Women are not permitted to rule in Islamic countries.