Lady Surma D'Bait Mar Shimun (27 January 1883 – 7 December 1975) was the sister of the Catholicos Patriarch of the

Assyrian Church of the East The Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE), sometimes called the Church of the East and officially known as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, is an Eastern Christianity, Eastern Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian denomin ...

and leader of the

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin Mar Shimun XXI Benyamin (1887– 3 March 1918) () served as the 117th List of patriarchs of the Church of the East, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East. Life He was an ethnic Assyrian people, Assyrian, born in 1887 in the village ...

Biography

Lady Surma was born in Qodshanis in Hakkari. She was educated by Rev. W.H. Browne of the Archbishop of Canterbury mission where she became fluent in English. After the assassination of her brother by the Kurdish rebel Simko and succeeded by his younger brother, Mar Shimun XX Paulos. Surma Khanum (Lady Surma) practically became regent, and in 1918 she was invited by British authorities to present the Assyrian question in London and she also attended the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

negotiations, probably as the only woman regent. The descendants of the Assyrian Empire had lived as a semi-independent nation in the Hakari mountains, but they were massacred and driven out by the Ottomans and Kurds in 1915. In return they were promised an independent homeland by

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1918 in Northern Iraq – the Mosul district – but this promise was not fulfilled. Mar Paulus died of tuberculosis 1920 and was succeeded by his 12 years old nephew,

Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII (; 26 February 1908 – 6 November 1975), sometimes known as Mar Eshai Shimun XXI, Mar Shimun XXIII Ishaya, Mar Shimun Ishai, or Simon Jesse,Foster, p. 34 served as the 119th Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East ...

, (1908–75), who was also assassinated. When Mar Eshai went to school in England until 1927, she assisted the Metropolitans

Mar Yosip Khnanisho Mār Yōsip Khnanisho (), is the twelfth Metropolitan or ''Matran'' of Shemsdin from 1918 to 1977. He is a saint in the Assyrian Church of the East. Life Hakkari As it was the custom for an uncle to pass on to the first born nephew the Sacred ...

of Rustaqa in Church affairs and was in charge of the secular affairs together with her brother, General David d'Mar Shimun, father of the Patriarch. She continued to act as a consultant throughout Mar Eshai's life, given her temporal and secular expertise. At the time of the disturbances in 1933 in Iraq, the Patriarchal family were taken to Cyprus, where they remained until 1952 when they moved to England and finally settling in the United States in 1960 thanks to a private law enacted in Congress and signed by the President. She died in the year of 1975 in the city of Turlock,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

.Women in power 1900-1940
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Biography

References

Further reading