She was probably married before she was 12 in an arranged marriage. There would be no chance for her to reject anyone. I'm calling bullshit on this one.
Most likely Esmat Al dowleh or her half sister Princess Zahra Khanum “Taj al-Saltaneh” both were princesses of the Qajar dynasty but no known "princess Qajar" existed ever. It's unlikely any young men killed themselves over her rejection, namely because she would have been married around 9 years old and prior to that would have been sequestered in her fathers haram. In the 19th century there was actually a phase in Persian culture where a very thin mustache- essentially an almost transpearant but visible peach fuzz, was considered to be high fashion of beauty.
Taj Saltaneh was a trailblazer for women's rights in Iran and a feminist. She was a prominent founding member of Iran's underground women's rights group Anjoman Horriyyat Nsevan (The Society of Women’s Freedom), working for equal rights for women circa 1910.
She was a writer, a painter, an intellectual and an activist who hosted literary salons at her house once a week. She was the first woman in court to take off the hijab and wear western clothes.
Her memoirs were published under the title of Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity 1884-1914(1996), edited with a preface by Abbas Amanat and translated by Anna Vanzan and Amin Neshati. T
Her memoirs were published under the title of Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity 1884-1914(1996), edited with a preface by Abbas Amanat and translated by Anna Vanzan and Amin Neshati. They were well received, the Times Literary Supplement describing them thus: In somewhat unusual and cumbersome style, Taj's memoirs, written in 1914, cover a thirty-year span of a rapidly changing era[...] A curious blend of the reconstructive and reflective, Taj al Saltaneh's memoirs bring home the intense conflicts of a life straddling the harem and modernism. (March 4, 1994)
She is buried in the Zahir od-Dowleh Cemetery in Tajrish.
Her life and her writing and her role as a feminist is a subject of Middle Eastern studies in universities from Tehran University to Harvard.
She's grace
She makes me feel like a disgrace
She's grace
She makes me look twice at her face
She is grace
If she was the last woman left on earth, I'd fear for the survival of the human race.
She was a writer, a painter, an intellectual and an activist who hosted literary salons at her house once a week. She was the first woman in court to take off the hijab and wear western clothes.
Her memoirs were published under the title of Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity 1884-1914(1996), edited with a preface by Abbas Amanat and translated by Anna Vanzan and Amin Neshati. T
She is buried in the Zahir od-Dowleh Cemetery in Tajrish.
Her life and her writing and her role as a feminist is a subject of Middle Eastern studies in universities from Tehran University to Harvard.