Narriman Sadek
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Mena Narriman Sadek (Arabic: مينا ناريمان صادق (or Nariman Sadiq) (October 31, 1933-February 16, 2005) was the daughter of Husain Fahmi Sadiq Bey, a high-ranking official in the Egyptian government, and his wife Asila Kamil; she was the second wife of King Farouk and the last Queen of Egypt.
Farouk divorced his first wife, Queen Farida, in 1948, after a ten-year marriage in which she had produced three daughters, but no male heir. In a bid to ensure his succession, and also to rekindle some public enthusiasm towards a decaying dynasty, he let it be known that he was in the market for a new bride, preferably an Egyptian, well-heeled but not of the aristocracy.
In her 17th year, Narriman Sadek was betrothed to U.N. diplomat Zaki Hashem. As young couples are wont to do, they visited a number of Cairo jewellery establishments in search of the perfect engagement ring. After they had visited one shop (a particularly well-connected one, it must be assumed) the proprietor contacted the palace to inform the court that he had located a suitable marriage prospect for the king. Machinations were devised whereby the couple were called back to the shop; purportedly to see a very special ring, at a very special price; only to have the King of Egypt emerge from a back room to make their acquaintance.
Sadek's engagement to Hashem was summarily broken off. Her father was given the title of "bey", and she was secreted out of the country, to the residence of the Egyptian ambassador in Rome, where she was taught the duties and demeanour of a future queen. In particular, her diet was closely monitored, in order to comply with Farouk's instructions that she weigh no more than 50 kg on their wedding day.
Farouk and Narriman were married on 6 May 1951 in a sumptuous ceremony with enough ostentatious excess to counteract any popular sentiment the king might have earned by marrying a commoner: for example, her wedding dress was decorated with 20,000 diamonds. The ceremony over, they departed for a four-month honeymoon on the royal yacht.
Narriman fulfilled her queenly duty on 16 January 1952, with the birth of their only son, Ahmed Fouad. Later that year, on 23 July 1952, a coup d'état headed by Gamal Abdel Nasser forced Farouk to abdicate. He stepped down in favour of his infant son, who assumed the throne as King Fuad II. Fuad's largely symbolic reign was cut short, however, with the establishment of a republic the following year.
Following Farouk's abdication, the royal family went into exile (aboard the royal yacht); in March 1953, bored with the itinerant lifestyle and Farouk's philandering, Narriman returned to Egypt with her mother, to her former position as a commoner. She and Farouk divorced on 2 February 1954.
On 3 May 1954 she married Dr. Adham al-Nakib of Alexandria, who had been Farouk's personal physician. They had one son, Akram, and subsequently divorced in 1961.
In 1967 she married Ismail Fahmi, another medical practitioner. She lived in seclusion in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis until her death.
[edit] Merge
Nariman Fahmi (née Sadeq, 1933–February 17, 2005) was the last queen consort of Egypt. She was briefly married to the country's last king, Farouk.
Known as the "Cinderella of the Nile" for her middle class background, Nariman was 16 when she married Farouk in May 1951. She had been selected in part as a populist gesture to prop up public opinion of the monarchy, and though she already was engaged to a Harvard doctoral student, Zaki Hachem, she broke off the engagement to become Egypt's queen. Extremely plump, she was put on a weight-loss program to please her future husband and schooled in court etiquette. The bride's gown was embroidered with 20,000 diamonds and all wedding presents made of gold were melted down into ingots after the ceremony.
She gave birth to Farouk's heir, Ahmed Fouad, in January 1952, six months before the monarchy was overthrown by the military in July of the same year.
The royal family, including Farouk's three daughters from his first marriage, fled to Italy. Nariman and Farouk separated in 1953, whereupon she resumed her maiden name. She returned to Egypt in early 1954 and divorced the king shortly thereafter; she gave up custody of her son to his father.
The former queen married Dr. Adham Al-Naquib in 1954, and the couple had a son, Akram, before divorcing. in 1967 she married Dr. Ismail Fahmi.
Nariman Fahmi died on February 17, 2005 in Dar al-Fouad hospital, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, after a brain hemorrhage. Her last years were spent in seclusion in an apartment in Cairo's upscale Heliopolis neighborhood, where she lived with her husband, Dr. Fahmi.
