Wansa

Mira Wansa and Meyan Khatun around 1935

Mira Khatun Wansa,^[1] Wansa Ismail el-Amawy^[2] or simply Wansa (1917 — June 25, 2015) was a Yazidi princess. In 1934–1938 she was the wife of Mir . Wansa was born in Tikrit and was a daughter of . Her brothers were Mua'wia,^[2] Abd el-Karim and Yezid Khan.

Biography[]

In 1929, she entered American School for Girls in Beirut. In 1934, she became the fifth wife of , son of and Meyan Khatun in the in Ba'adra.^[3] Wansa gave birth to a daughter Leyla who died after one year.^[4] In 1938, Said Beg attended a meeting where Wansa's brother Yezid Khan was accused of conspiracy and marked for death. When Said Beg informed Wansa, she pulled out a revolver from beneath her pillow and said "He will hear that you have died first!".^[5] She fired multiple times, wounding her husband. In the confusion Wansa's Armenian chauffeur Hagop assisted her to escape to Mosul and then to Baghdad, where a hiding place was found for her by Hagop's family, whom Wansa's father Ismail had rescued years before. She then moved to Aleppo.^[6]

When The Second World War started, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, who was a friend of Ismail, allowed Wansa to return to Baghdad and live under official protection.^[4][6] In 1947, Wansa converted to Islam and married a Syrian doctor. Wansa died in Cairo on 21 June 2015 in Cairo, Egypt.^[7]

References[]