Queen Iffat bint Ahmed Al-Thunayan Al Saud

Iffat bint Ahmed Al-Thunayan Al Saud (Arabic: عفّت الثنيان آل سعود‎) (1910 - February 17, 2000), also spelled Effat, was the most prominent wife of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. [1] She is also the half-sister of Kamal Adham. She is sometimes called Queen Iffat, Emira Iffat, or Princess Iffat. She is famous for her efforts on the improvement of Saudi education. She is the founder of Taif Model School and the first Girl's College in Saudi Arabia. She is one of Saudi Arabia’s most influential 20th-century women.

Lineage and Early Life

Her great-grandfather was Governor of Riyadh during the 1840s. Her grandfather had been taken to Turkey as prisoners of the Ottoman Empire following the collapse of the First Saudi State. Her father, Ahmed Al-Thunayan, returned as adviser to King Abdul-Aziz during World War 1. Her mother was Hungarian or Circassian. Although a descendant of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, the Al Saud, she had been born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey before her marriage to Faisal in 1932. She is part of the Al Thunayan cadet branch of the Al Saud family. Her father died while serving in the Turkish army. When her widowed mother fell on hard times, Iffat was sent to live with her aunt in Istanbul and attended school there. A “sterling student,” Iffat was so poor she wore shoes without soles, stuffed with paper, to school. As the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the late 1920s, members of the Al Saud family began to reunite in Saudi Arabia. Iffat’s aunt contacted the family and asked for their assistance to finance a pilgrimage to Mecca for her and her niece, who was by then 15, and held a teaching degree.

Marriage With Faisal

Prince Faisal first met his future spouse in 1931, after she arrived in the kingdom on a pilgrimage with her paternal aunt, Jawharan Bint Abdullah Al Thunayan. Prince Faisal, as viceroy of the Hijaz, visited Iffat and her mother in Turkey and took them back in 1932. Ìffat spoke little or no Arabic and Faisal did not know Turkish. Remarkably, Ìffat and Faisal taught each other their respective native tongues and four of their children learned Turkish at home. Though she eventually became fluent in Arabic, Ìffat retained traces of a Turkish accent, which further distinguished her in the cosmopolitan Hijaz. This linguistic particularity was valuable as she imparted her interest in other cultures not only to her children but, over the years, to many Saudis as well. The couple had nine children – five sons and four daughters. Iffat was the mother of Mohammed, Bandar, Saud, Turki, Abdur Rahman, Lulwah, and Haifa. Their sons are very educated and are alumnus of Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, Sandhurst, and Cranwell. She had hired foreign tutors to teach her daughters. The daughters later received additional education in Switzerland. By contrast, less than 6 of the 107 children of Faisal's older brother, Saud, even completed high school.

Queen Iffat

Queen Iffat is an informal title given to her because of her beloved status in Saudi Arabia. In 1967, Queen Iffat began making public appearances at state events. She became honorary president of the "Saudi Arabian Renaissance Society" — a woman's society in Riyadh to teach women skills in crafts, and to assist needy families — in the organization's fifth anniversary. Her "Saudi Renaissance Movement" sponsored free clinics and literary classes for women. Her philanthropy extended beyond education to include economic development and human services for women. During the 1960s, she established and funded the first two social welfare entities in the Kingdom, the Jeddah-based Women's Welfare Association and the Riyadh-based Al Nahdah Women's Welfare Association, which continue to provide programs and services today.

Saudi Education

In 1943, Prince Faisal and Princess Ìffat inaugurated the Taif Model School for Boys and Girls, where their own children, children of other members of the Al Saud family and those who consented to attend, enrolled. It was a boarding school and most of the staff, at the beginning, were from Egypt. Female nurses — mostly Egyptians and Yemenis (although there was one Saudi too) — attended to the youngest students and slept in residence to look after them. The girls' section was reserved for students from the Al Saud family, including the couple's daughters. On her wedding anniversary in 1955, she launched the first private school for women. Princess Ìffat inaugurated the Dar Al Hanan, or House of Affection, in Jeddah, where her youngest daughters were schooled. The name of the school, the inspiration for which came from the Quran, had only 15 youngsters in the first year. In 1967, Queen Ìffat further established the first girls' college in Riyadh, the Quliyyat Al Banat, or the Girls' College, and, as part of her popular efforts, started the Nahdah Al Sa'udiyyah, a Saudi progressive association that provided illiterate Riyadh women free classes in hygiene and childcare, foreign languages, typing and other useful subjects. The girl's College of Education also provided teacher training. By the 1970s, Iffat was building the kingdom's first community college for women. In 1999, Queen Ìffat inaugurated Iffat College-- a private all-girls college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia next to the Dar Al Hanan. She used to come and attend graduation ceremonies. Her motto was “Educate yourself. Be good mothers. Bring up perfect Saudis. Build your country." Her other motto was "The mother can be a school in herself if you prepare her well". Prince Muhammad bin Faisal announced the Princess Iffat Al-Thunayan Prize that has been founded to expand the reach of her legacy and recognize women’s contributions and achievements.

Personal Life

Iffat was a dark blond, with very bright, honey-colored eyes. She was an avid rose gardener. She sewed, with her mother's assistance, the curtains of their new home in Makkah and insisted on family lunches or dinners, depending on time and place. She was an avid reader. She was fluent in French. According to those who knew Ìffat, she was extremely well organized. She played a leading role in Saudi female society, attended state functions, including graduations, and received female state guests. She also traveled extensively, although on a private basis. Her doors were open to everyone, as she tried to keep abreast of developments and assist her husband by acting as a well-attuned source of information within the Hijaz and, later, in the Najd. She was rarely ever photographed in public and she never appeared on television. She died after an operation in February 2010. She was laid to rest after Friday prayers in Riyadh.