Jehan Sadat dies at age 88 after battle with illness
The relative also said the former first lady was receiving medical care at a health facility in the country over the past two weeks,
Former Egyptian first lady Jehan Sadat, wife of late President Anwar Sadat, has died at the age of 88 after a short battle with an illness, Egyptian media reported on Friday.
On Thursday, a relative of the late president said Sadat had been battling an illness for a year and a half and was receiving medical treatment abroad before returning to Egypt, according to a local media report.
The relative also said the former first lady was receiving medical care at a health facility in the country over the past two weeks, but her health had deteriorated. The relative did not reveal what illness Sadat was battling, however, he confirmed it was not COVID-19.
The Egyptian Presidency mourned the death of Sadat, saying she was a leading example for the Egyptian women in supporting her husband during the difficult circumstances “until he led the country in achieving a historic victory in the glorious October war.”
The Presidency’s office also granted her a prestigious national award and announced the naming of a key highway in Cairo after her.
In August 1933, Jehan was born in Cairo to an Egyptian middle-class father and a British mother. In 1949, she was married to Anwar Sadat, a military officer at the time who later on served as Egypt’s president from 1970 until his assassination in 1981. The couple had given birth to three daughters, Noha, Gihan, Lobna and a son, Gamal.
