Samira Shahbandar ( ar, سميرة الشابندر, born 1946) is an Iraqi former doctor and physician. She was the second wife of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

Early life

Shahbandar was born in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

in 1946. Shahbandar was born into an aristocratic

family.

Career

Shahbandar was a physician.

Personal life

Shahbandar was married to Noureddine Safi, an Iraqi pilot and manager of

Iraqi Airways Iraqi Airways Company, operating as Iraqi Airways ( ar, الخطوط الجوية العراقية ''al-Xuṭūṭ al-Jawwiyyah al-ʿIrāqiyyah, Kurdish: ھێڵی ئاسمانی عێراق''), is the national carrier of Iraq, headquartered ...

. They have two children. Shahbandar's son is Mohammad Saffi, who was born in 1966. In 1983, Shahbandar met

, whom she had a son with. Saddam’s eldest son Uday was reported to have envied him. Saddam Hussein forced Shahbandar to divorce her first husband. In 1986, Shahbandar was married to Saddam Hussein in secret. In the late 1980s, Shahbandar appeared in public with Saddam Hussein. Kamel Hana Gegeo, Hussein's valet, food taster and friend, introduced Samira to him. Hussein's secret marriage took place while he was married to

Sajida Talfah Sajida Khairallah Talfah ( ar, ساجدة خير الله طلفاح, Sājidah Khayr Allāh Ṭilfāḥ; born c. 1935) is the widow and cousin of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and mother of two sons ( Uday and Qusay) and three daughter ...

, his first wife. Sajida was extremely jealous and angry when she found out about his mistress, and her brother Adnan Khairallah complained.

Uday Hussein Uday Saddam Hussein ( ar, عدي صدام حسين; 18 June 1964 – 22 July 2003) was an Iraqi politician and the eldest son of Saddam Hussein. He held numerous positions as a sports chairman, military officer and businessman, and was the head ...

, Saddam Hussein's son with Sajida, was also angry over his father's mistress, took it as an insult to his mother, and believed that his status as heir apparent was threatened. In October 1988, during a party, Uday Hussein murdered Kamel Hana Gegeo in front of horrified guests. While Saddam Hussein declared that his son Uday Hussein would go to trial for murder, Gegeo's parents and Sajida begged that Uday Hussein be pardoned. In 2002, Shahbandar's son Mohammad Saffi, a resident of New Zealand and a flight engineer with

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacifi ...

, was detained in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

due to lack of a student visa. As of 2004, Shahbandar was acknowledged as the wife of Saddam Hussein by United Nations.

In Popular Culture

Her character was featured heavily in the plot of BBC adaptation of ''

House of Saddam ''House of Saddam'' is a 2008 British docudrama television miniseries that charted the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein. A co-production between BBC Television and HBO Films, the series was first broadcast on BBC Two (in the United Kingdom) in f ...

'' and was played by Australian actress

Christine Stephen-Daly Christine Stephen-Daly (born 1973) is an Australian actress. Her television credits include '' Pacific Drive'' (1996), ''Casualty'' (2001–04), ''Cutting It'' (2005), and ''House of Saddam'' (2008). Biography Stephen-Daly grew up in Melbourne ...

Possible issue

In a 2007, '' Al Riyadh'' interview, Ali Al-Nida Husein Al-Omar, chief of the Bejat subtribe of Al-Bu Nasir, was asked about Saddam's son from Samira Shahbandar. The chief replied:

References