Samira Shahbandar ((free)) (2024)

She gave him a son, Ali, in 1990 or 1991—the dates are murky, as the regime kept her existence in a fog of state secrecy. The birth of Ali changed the dynamic. Saddam doted on the boy. Ali was charming, Westernized, the son of a mother who spoke English and loved French perfumes. He was everything Uday, the violent and erratic heir, was not. Uday despised Samira. He called her "The Stranger." He saw her son, Ali, as a threat to his inheritance.

Around 1983, she was introduced to Saddam by his valet and food taster, Kamel Hana Gegeo. samira shahbandar

In 1988, Saddam's eldest son, Uday Hussein, murdered Kamel Hana Gegeo at a party, partly as an act of revenge for Gegeo's role in facilitating the affair between Saddam and Samira. The Iraq War and Exile SAMIRA SHAHBANDAR | Security Council - the United Nations She gave him a son, Ali, in 1990

Before she became the fourth wife of the most feared man in Iraq, Samira Shahbandar was a creature of the sky. She was a flight attendant for Iraqi Airways, a woman known for her striking beauty—a pale, elegant face framed by dark hair, possessing a regal stillness that set her apart. In the late 1980s, Baghdad was still a cosmopolitan hub, a city of coffee shops and universities, and Samira moved through it with an air of independence. Ali was charming, Westernized, the son of a

Before her involvement with Saddam, she worked as a flight attendant and reportedly as a physician or schoolteacher.