July 3, 2013

As a coup is underway in Egypt...



... an old Egyptian princess dies.
Princess Fawzia, a member of Egypt's last royal family and the first wife of Iran's later-deposed monarch, has died, Iranian opposition groups said... She was the daughter of Egyptian King Fuad I, who ruled until 1936. Her brother and nephew later rose to the throne before the monarchy was toppled in 1953.
In 1939, she married married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, when she was 18 and he was 19. He became the Shah of Iran in 1941. They divorced a few years later.

But that was long ago. Here's some news of the coup they say is happening now.

53 comments:

Tibore said...

Michael Totten said it best: The balance is between the part of the population who wants to move away from Muslim Brotherhood ideology and towards a western, free society and the part that thinks the Brotherhood didn't go far enough and for whom only full-blown Salafist ideology will do.

Obviously I'd rather see the former succeed. By a large margin. The later would be a tragedy for more than just Egypt.

But, the ball's in play now. It's just a matter of seeing who comes out on top.

Rabel said...

Smokin'. It's good to be the Shah.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Looks like it was Farah Pahlavi who talked the Shah into losing the unibrow.

edutcher said...

Ya love it, right?

Hey, maybe Choom can fly from South Africa to Cairo and go into the streets to tell the people how wrong they are and that Morsi is as Awesome as he is.

PS Fawzia got all the looks in the family; Farouk was an Arab Michael Moore.

Nomennovum said...

Smokin'. It's good to be the Shah.

Yes and yes. Imagine what the replacement model looked like.

rhhardin said...

Ravel said he regretted writing Pavane for a Dead Princess because every piano student wanted to play it for him.

Original Mike said...

She was gorgeous.

Quaestor said...

What a striking picture. It really drives home the current degradation of Islam. There sits a beautiful woman tastefully dressed, at ease beside her husband, unveiled. And where is their child? On her father's lap, who is evidently delighted with her and his wife and the situation. He's not eyeing her suspiciously. He's not seething with pent up rage at his wife's beauty being displayed for the photographer. He's not contemplating an honor killing.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

A coup is not necessarily a bad action. The current regime is predisposed to fanatical thought and action. The Egyptians need representatives who are capable of reconciling reason and emotion.

n.n said...

Quaestor:

Dreams of moderate times? We only ever enjoy them in short intervals.

Tibore said...

@Quaestor I agree. It's what's so tragic about Iran: It was a country making strides towards being modern (for that time), civil, and free. Not on the level of the West, of course - any state that had SAVAK operating still had a very long way to go - but rather in relation to it's past. But it got ruined by Khomeini and his gang.

Iran and Lebanon could have been two excellently forward-looking nations with admittedly problematic civil divisions and problems (even without extremism, there would be lines between the various sects in Lebanon, and Iran had its own issues with both the Kurds and civil groups that made the Shah feel he needed to keep SAVAK in business). But instead Iran turned into a theocracy, and Lebanon is just a basketcase. And all due to Islamic extremism.

ricpic said...

Looks like Hedy Lamarr.

Quaestor said...

That's Headley.

edutcher said...

How the Egyptians see the
Messiah
.

Nice to see a people with some brains, huh?

Quaestor said...

What a striking picture. It really drives home the current degradation of Islam. There sits a beautiful woman tastefully dressed, at ease beside her husband, unveiled. And where is their child? On her father's lap, who is evidently delighted with her and his wife and the situation. He's not eyeing her suspiciously. He's not seething with pent up rage at his wife's beauty being displayed for the photographer. He's not contemplating an honor killing.

He is the king, after all. In the back streets and the countryside, it was a different story.

Along with the middle class and the Commies, nobody wanted rid of the Shah more than the Shias, who are the majority.

AllenS said...

Too bad we don't have coups here. I have two pitchforks.

sunsong said...

Celebrating for the Egyptian people...

garage mahal said...

Recall Morsi

Anonymous said...

She was Vivien Leigh pretty. They don't make royals like they used to.

Cedarford said...

Sometimes, for the betterment of a nation, it comes time to chuck a democratically elected leader and suspend or burn the existing Constitution.

Bad day for the neocons who argued that the Arabs just needed democracy and noble purple-fingered Freedom Lovers picking the cool guy.
Bad day for "Sacred Parchment" worshippers that believe constitutions are suicide pacts, in worst case.

May happen in America some day. America and its cities decay enough, most people are seeing dramatically declining standards of living, nothing gets fixed because the courts block it along with a bribed Ruling Elite?

WE may become like the Egyptian masses. Cheering the coup.

Bring on the military, fix or burn our present legal framework...evaluate when people are able to wisely vote, purge the people in power that brought the US to the brink...and when power should be transferred from the US military after the country is saved from collapse..

Cedarford said...

Sometimes, for the betterment of a nation, it comes time to chuck a democratically elected leader and suspend or burn the existing Constitution.

Bad day for the neocons who argued that the Arabs just needed democracy and noble purple-fingered Freedom Lovers picking the cool guy.
Bad day for "Sacred Parchment" worshippers that believe constitutions are suicide pacts, in worst case.

May happen in America some day. America and its cities decay enough, most people are seeing dramatically declining standards of living, nothing gets fixed because the courts block it along with a bribed Ruling Elite?

WE may become like the Egyptian masses. Cheering the coup.

Bring on the military, fix or burn our present legal framework...evaluate when people are able to wisely vote, purge the people in power that brought the US to the brink...and when power should be transferred from the US military after the country is saved from collapse..

AllenS said...

Unbelievable. Some Egyptian shows up and offers us jobs and fun and pictures on Facebook. Is this a great country, or what?

Quaestor said...

n.n. wrote:
A coup is not necessarily a bad action.

How true. History is replete with examples of peoples democratically choosing tyranny. The French did it. The Germans did it. The Iranians would claim they did it. We did it. Why not the Egyptians? There's an aphorism: You get the leaders you deserve, except when you're lucky. However, in Egypt's case the game was rigged by a foreign power (i.e. Obama) in a scheme aimed at toppling Israel, regardless of the welfare of poor Egyptians.

A coup might be the most democratic result possible.

Carnifex said...

you know what would be funny...moochie in Tahrir Square without the SS. No. I take that back. Just cause her husband is a little bitch I shouldn't wish ill on her. I'd settle for Zero in Tahrir without the SS.

Nomennovum said...

Recall Morsi

Yes, I do. He hasn't been gone that long.

garage mahal said...

This is the last major presidential coup since what, 2000?

RecChief said...

hey she was kinda hot. And to think Sharia would cover that up. oh, guess I just proved why

Chip Ahoy said...

Yes, she was gore juice end she was lug jury ass.

Those were the daze my friend so lets keep dan zing break out the booze and have a ball.

test said...

Tibore said...
But, the ball's in play now. It's just a matter of seeing who comes out on top.


Unless both sides are overwhelmingly against violence those more willing to kill win in the vast majority instances, even when both sides are violent (Hamas > PA). I suspect while the military isn't going to have many qualms about taking out Morsi in return the Muslim Brotherhood are likely to target their families. Are the officers willing to trump that?

Advantage MB.

Anonymous said...

Democracy is the belief that most people are not idiots.

How well has that worked out for the world?

Chip Ahoy said...

Good one, Garage, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, you meant to say 2012 when the criminal syndicate parlayed government departments into stepping on the necks of opposition. All opposition. At all levels. Hard to forget something still unraveling, great misdirection there, though, ha ha ha ha, it'll take years to get to the bottom of the damage that's done and this ass of yours has an asterisks next to his second term, forever like the ballplayers have. Thanks Taranto, I like that analysis.

edutcher said...

Carnifex said...

you know what would be funny...moochie in Tahrir Square without the SS. No. I take that back. Just cause her husband is a little bitch I shouldn't wish ill on her. I'd settle for Zero in Tahrir without the SS.

You got my vote.

garage mahal said...

This is the last major presidential coup since what, 2000?

No, that was an assassination that went south.

Face it, your Messiah's Smart Diplomacy is Stuck On Stoopid.

Jay Vogt said...

Israel is truly blessed by her enemies.

Hard to motivate them to peace talks when all their enemies are beating the shit out of one and other.

I wonder what the Mossad is up to.

OBTW - Palestinians . . . f**ked again.

Bob Ellison said...

The mob in Egypt is right now celebrating the supremacy of military power over political power.

AllenS said...

Evidently, Morsi has been removed from power. Wasn't Mosi Obama's choice. He just had to get rid of the previous ruler. Everything that Obama touches turns to shit.

edutcher said...

For once, it's a good thing, I guess. I mean it is fun watching Choom's world implode by the weight of its own corruption.

In the old days, Morsi, his family, everybody in his regime and their families, and anybody in the Moslem Brotherhood withing bomber range would be dead by now.

Damned feminists, wuss up everything.

Icepick said...

Too bad we don't have coups here.

Give it time. Give it time....

Icepick said...

Sometimes, for the betterment of a nation, it comes time to chuck a democratically elected leader and suspend or burn the existing Constitution.

We can do that with a Constitutional Convention - no need for a military coup. Once you go that second route, you never really get off it.

viator said...

Zeinobia, just (an) Egyptian girl, who is fluent in English, live blogging from Egypt..

I have checked her blog at other times during Egyptian crises. The Storify live blog has pages FYI.

Egyptian Chronicles

Browndog said...

Be careful posting photos from muslim counties during the late 50's.

Pictures of educated professionals of both genders walking the streets of Kabul, Tehran, Cairo, etc., might be seen as a threat to national security by the NSA as President Obama negotiates with the Taliban, Mullahs, Brotherhood...et.al.

Rusty said...

AllenS said...
Too bad we don't have coups here. I have two pitchforks.

Where have you been for the last 4 1/2 years?

Tibore said...

Hmmm... optimistic, but cautious.

Optimistic: The Army shut down the Muslim Brotherhood's TV channel. A voice of the current government's Islamicism is now silenced (and no, if anyone thinks the MB is moderate, you'd better go read Michael J. Totten's blog. They're only "moderate" in that they're not as bad as Hezbollah or Al Qaeda. Defending the MB as "moderate" is like defending syphilis because it's not ebola).

Cautious: The Army shut down the Muslim Brotherhood's TV channel. A voice is now silenced. MB's TV (LOL, MBTV) is still representative of some parts of the population, and the army is shutting that down. That's repressive, even though it's repressing those who'd repress others themselves. Better to provide an alternate voice saying what's wrong with the other one than to stoop to their game.

So, like the Egyptian commentariat on Twitter and blogs, there's reason for hope but at the same time reason for worry. The observation that the country could go either way - either to more liberty and rationalism or more repression and radicalism - is still in play.

Anonymous said...

Cedarford said...
"Bad day for the neocons who argued that the Arabs just needed democracy and noble purple-fingered Freedom Lovers picking the cool guy."

Did the neo-cons argue for that? Weren't the realist neo-cons faulted for supporting Mubarak? Wasn't it the progressive who told Mubarak to step aside for an election in which only the Muslim Brotherhood had the organization to win? Didn't Bush take the flaks for halting his Middle East democratization process after Iraq? Didn't we win Iraq until a progressive botch the peace?

Ways too early to re-write history.

Anonymous said...

Is it a coup now or was it a coup when Morsi kicked out the Supreme Court, replaced the generals, packed the Assembly with Islamists, and rewrote the Constitution?

He should have done a slow coup, like his buddy Erogan has been doing in Turkey. Let the little frog swim happily in the warming cauldron.

Will said...

Looks like she has a Shiner tho

Thanks for the history!

Will said...

Looks like she has a Shiner tho

Thanks for the history!

deborah said...

Along with the modern garb, I wonder if they were from different sects?

Saint Croix said...

I love all the anti-Obama signs!

Quaestor said...

deborah wrote:
Along with the modern garb, I wonder if they were from different sects?

Probably.

Twelver Shia is for all intents and purposes the state religion of Iran and has been for centuries. Devotion to Ali and his descendants served as a fulcrum of independence for the Persians against those they regarded as upstart desert barbarians, the Arabs. Traditionally Persian shahs have claimed an ancestral link to Mohammad through his daughter Fatiam and son-in-law Ali including the Qajar dynasty and the Pahlavis who replaced them, even though both these families were of Oghuz Turkish lineage.

Princess Fawzia was the daughter of Farouk I and a member of the dynasty of Muhammad Ali Pasha, and thus ethically Turkish rather than an Arab, but with a centuries long adherence to Sunni Islam.

Unknown said...

She has a black eye.

Unknown said...

She has a black eye.

deborah said...

Thank, Quaestor, it's interesting that both countries have Turkish ruling ancestries, but I guess that's the Ottoman influence. I've heard that King Hussein of Jordan has right of succession to the Iranian throne.

deborah said...

Good eye, Dave, she does.