Sajida Talfah - Wife of Saddam Hussein

Wife of Saddam Hussein

Sajida and Saddam had five children together. In 1964, their first son Uday was born followed by Qusay in 1966. In 1968 their first daughter Raghad was born, followed by Rana in 1969, and finally their youngest daughter Hala in 1972.

In 1986, Saddam married another woman, Samira Shahbandar, while still married to Sajida. Sajida was enraged, and Uday Hussein, son of Saddam and Sajida, was also angry over his father's new wife. Uday believed that his inheritance was endangered by the new wife. He also took it as an insult to his mother. In 1988, at a party thrown in the honor of Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Uday beat and stabbed Kamel Hana Gegeo to death. Uday believed that it was Kamel who introduced Saddam and Samira, and that he arranged their meetings. Some say the murder of Gegeo was a request of Sajida. Although her husband married another woman, Sajida and Saddam never divorced.

Sajida hardly ever appeared in public with her husband, so for many years her existence was obscure to the Iraqi people. However, when rumors surfaced that Saddam had married another woman, and that his family life was now strained, more pictures and videos appeared in the Iraqi media of Saddam and Sajida, as well as them with their children. These pictures and videos were intended to make it seem as if Saddam's family life was not strained.

In 1989, Sajida's brother Adnan, an Iraqi Army General, was killed in a supposed helicopter crash in the desert during a sandstorm. Many people believe that Saddam ordered one of his bodyguards to plant a bomb in the helicopter because of Adnan's growing popularity. Sajida was furious, and blamed Saddam, believing her brother's death wasn't an accident.

Sajida, along with many members of her family, fled Iraq in 1990 because of the Gulf War, and left Iraq before the bombings began. There are many different reports on where the Hussein family fled to, but a possible location is Switzerland. The Hussein family returned to Iraq after the war was over.