Khieu Ponnary (1920–2003)
Khieu Ponnary (1920–2003)
Cambodian first lady. Born 1920 into a priviliged upperclass family in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; died July 1, 2003, in Pailin, Cambodia; dau. of a judge for the French colonial regime; sister of Khieu Thirith, later Ieng Thirith (Minister of Social action and Education of Democratic Kampuchea who married a close friend of Pol Pot, Ieng Sary); studied at the Sorbonne; became 1st wife of Saloth Sar (Cambodian dictator known as Pol Pot), 1956 (died 1998).
A scholar of some distinction, was the 1st Cambodian woman to obtain a baccalaureate; taught literature and linguistics at a college in Takeo, then at Lycée Sisowath; turned to radical politics and with husband was in the hierarchy of the Cambodian Communist Party; traveled with him to Hanoi and China for backing (1965–66); became paranoid, convinced the Vietnamese were out to kill her and husband; possibly in name only, served as president of the Democratic Kampuchea Women's Association (1972–78); was last seen in public (1978); incapacitated by mental illness, spent her last 20 years in exile and seclusion, unaware that her husband took another wife in 1985.