Zahra Khanom
Tadj es-Saltaneh commonly referred to as Princess Qajar was a princess and
memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty. Princess Tadj was one of the best known
daughters of the Persian king, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who ruled Persia from
1848 to May 1896. The Persian princess was born on February 4, 1883 and died on
January 25, 1936, in Tehran, at the age of 52. Princess Qajar revolutionized
beauty standards with her full look and ragged unibrow, and her unmistakably evident
mustache. She was a true epitome of beauty at her time. Princess Qajar was
declared a symbol of beauty in Persia and was coveted by many men. Thousands of
men wanted to marry her, 13 of whom committed suicide upon being rejected by
the princess.
Princess
Qajar eventually married Amir Hussein Khan Shoja'-al Saltaneh and had they had
four children - two boys and two girls. They later got divorced in 1907 after
enduring an unloving arranged marriage - she married Khan when she was 13. The
princess argued for marriage based on love and strongly criticized arranged
marriages. She was also loved by the Persian poet Aref Qazvini, who wrote his
poem Ey Taj for her.
Princess
Qajar was an intellectual, a writer, a painter, a feminist and a trailblazer
for women's rights in Iran. She was a prominent founding member of Anjoman
Horriyat Nsevan (the Society of Women's Freedom) - Iran's underground women's
rights group. Princess Tadj was the first woman in court to take off the hijab
and wear western clothes. The princess' memoirs reveal a deeply unhappy life. She
had attempted suicide thrice when writing her memoirs in 1914. Her memoirs
cover a thirty-year span of a rapidly changing era in Iran. Princess Tadj was
buried in the Zahir od-Dowleh Cemetry in Tajrish. The pictures below depict
beauty standards in Persia in the 19th to early 20th centuries.
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