Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco

Lalla Salma
Lalla Salma in 2012
Princess consort of Morocco
Tenure 21 March 2002 – present
Born (1978-05-10) 10 May 1978
Fes, Morocco
Spouse
Issue Crown Prince Moulay Hassan
Princess Lalla Khadija
Father Hadj Abdelhamid Bennani
Mother Naïma Bensouda
Religion Sunni Islam

Princess Lalla Salma (born Salma Bennani (Arabic: سلمى بناني‎, Amazigh: ⵍⴰⵍⵍⴰ ⵙⵍⵎⴰ); 10 May 1978) is the princess consort of Morocco. She is the ex wife of King Mohammed VI and the first wife of a Moroccan ruler to have been publicly acknowledged and given a royal title.[1]

Early life and education

She was born Salma Bennani in Fes to a hardworking family.[2]

Her parents were Hadj Abdelhamid Bennani, a schoolteacher,[3] and Naïma Bensouda,[3] who died in 1981, when Salma was three years old; from then on she and her sister Meryem were raised by her maternal grandmother, Hajja Fatma Abdellaoui Maâne. She lived in Rabat, with her half cousin Saira, and the two are commonly seen together in public.[1]

She was educated in Rabat, where she attended a private school, Lycée Hassan II, Lycée Moulay Youssef, and l'École Nationale Supérieure d'Informatique et d'Analyse de Systèmes.[3] She met her husband during a private party in 1999. After completing her engineering studies, she worked for a few months as an information services engineer at ONA Group, the country's largest private holding company (which is also controlled by the Moroccan Royal Family).

Marriage and children

Salma married King Mohammed VI on 12 October 2001 (the sadaq or proclamation of marriage) and on 21 March 2002 (the zafaf or celebration of marriage), at the Rabat Royal Palace, Rabat, and was granted the title of Princess Lalla, with the style of Royal Highness on her marriage.[3]

The royal couple have two children:[4]

Royal role

Salma has kept quite a low profile as Princess of Morocco, although a more public one than her predecessors. She supports cancer associations and the Fez Sacred Music Festival.[5]

Salma has represented the King and Morocco in meetings and gatherings in Thailand, Japan, Israel and France. On 29 April 2011, she attended the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton.[6] She also attended the wedding of Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy in 2012.

She founded a cancer prevention association in Morocco[7] and has been involved in HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa. She visited Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

Ancestry

Titles, styles, and honours

Styles of
Princess Salma of Morocco
Reference style Her Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Royal Highness

Titles and styles

Lalla Salma is styled as Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Salma.

Honours

References

  1. 1 2 Profile Archived 2 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine., nettyroyal.nl; accessed 20 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "RWB" (in French). Reporters sans frontières (Morocco)/VSD. 7 March 2002. Archived from the original on 25 December 2003. Retrieved 28 August 2015. Tout le royaume bruisse de l’événement à venir. Courant mars, sa majesté Mohammed VI se mariera. L’heureuse élue, Salma Bennani, est une jeune femme de 25 ans, native de Fès et issue de la haute bourgeoisie.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 The Alawi Dynasty – Genealogy – website The Royal Ark
  4. ↑ Paris Match royal blog Archived 23 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor: Princess Lalla Salma Gets Ethereal. Orderofsplendor.blogspot.co.uk (4 June 2010); retrieved 9 April 2012.
  6. ↑ The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor: Royal Fashion Awards: Foreign Royals at the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge's Wedding. Orderofsplendor.blogspot.co.uk (29 April 2011); retrieved 9 April 2012.
  7. ↑ Lalla Salma Association Against Cancer Archived 29 May 2012 at Archive.is – website UICC
  8. ↑ Boletín Oficial del Estado
  9. ↑ Princess Lalla Salma decorated by President of Senegal
  10. ↑ "Princess Lalla Salma Receives WHO Gold Medal". The North Africa Post. 26 May 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.