Sajida Talfah

Sajida Talfah got married to Saddam Hussein 1958. The couple had five children together: sons Uday and Qusay, and daughters, Hala, Rana and Raghad. In the year 1986, Hussein married Samira Shahbandar (who was a doctor) while still married to Talfah. The latter got enraged at this and her son Uday was also enraged. In a party thrown in honor of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s wife, Uday stabbed Kamel Hana Gegeo (Hussein’s personal bodyguard who introduced him to his second wife) to death.

In 1989, Talfah’s brother Adnan, who was an Iraqi Army General, died in a supposed helicopter crash. Many people believed that Hussein had commanded one of his bodyguards to place a bomb in his helicopter as he was insecure because of Adnan's increasing fame. Talfah was furious and blamed her husband for the incident, believing Adnan’s death wasn't an accident.

Sajida Talfah is believed to have fled to Qatar a few hours before the bombing of Baghdad started on 19 March 2003. She is believed to have taken her daughter Hala along with her. In 2004, Talfah hired a defence team to defend her husband during his trial for charges on war crimes and other offences. Later on, it was disclosed that she had dissolved the team and had instead appointed Khalil al-Duleimi as the sole legal counsel.

On July 2, 2006, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie (Iraq national security advisor) announced that Talfah and her daughter Raghad were placed at #16 and #17 on the Iraqi government's most wanted list. It is said that Talfah had financed Sunni Muslim revolutionaries under Hussein’s reign. Later on, the lawyer leading Hussein’s defence team claimed that the charges against Talfah and her daughter were baseless. He also stated that Talfah, who was supposedly undergoing medical treatment at that time, lived in Qatar alone and had no contact with anyone including the lawyers.

In 2015, Sajida Talfah’s family denied rumors of her death.