Early Years
Born Khieu Thirith in northwestern Cambodia's Battambang Province, she came from a relatively wealthy and privileged family, and was the second daughter of a Cambodian judge who abandoned the family during World War II, running off to Battambang with a Cambodian princess.
Thirith graduated from the Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh, and while still in Cambodia, she became engaged to Ieng Sary, who attended Lycée in the year above her. She went on to Paris with her sister where she studied English Literature majoring in Shakespeare at the Sorbonne. She became the first Cambodian to achieve a degree in English Literature. Thirith married Ieng Sary in the town hall of Paris' 15th arrondissement the summer of 1951 and took her husband's name, becoming Ieng Thirith. Her older sister, Khieu Ponnary, later became the wife of Pol Pot. Together the two sisters and their husbands later became known as 'Cambodia's Gang of Four', a reference to the radical group led by Jiang Qing the widow of Mao Tse-tung.
Read more about this topic: Ieng Thirith
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