Begum Aga Khan III

Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan (15 February 1906 – 1 July 2000) was the fourth and last wife of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III. The couple married thirteen months after the Aga Khan III and his third wife were divorced by mutual consent. The Begum was well known for her generosity towards and compassion for the impoverished and the elderly. Her Egypt-based Om Habibeh Foundation worked towards the alleviation of poverty and the improvement of quality of life in the area surrounding Aswan, Egypt, and in Le Cannet she established a retirement home. She was particularly interested in women's issues and, an accomplished artist and sculptor, she was also interested in the arts including classical music, ballet, and the opera. The Begum died at the age of 94 in Le Cannet and was buried in the mausoleum of her husband at Aswan. She was born Yvonne Blanche Labrousse in the town of Sète, France on 15 February 1906. She was called Yvette. She was the daughter of Adrien Labrousse, a tramway conductor, and Marie Brouet, a seamstress. Her family soon moved to Cannes and later on to Lyon where the young Yvette spent most of her childhood. In 1929, at the age of twenty-four, she became Miss Lyon and one year later she was named Miss France. As a beauty queen and a representative of France, she traveled to many countries around the world. She found herself particularly taken by Egypt and, in the late 1930s, she moved to Cairo and adopted the faith of Islam. Yvette Labrousse met Aga Khan…