Khieu Ponnary

Khieu Ponnary ( * 1920 in Phnom Penh, † July 1, 2003 in Pailin ) was a Cambodian politician, who was best known as the wife of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leaders.

Khieu Ponnary was the older sister of Ieng Thirith. She attended high school and was the first Cambodian woman who, a bachelor's degree earned with the completion of the elite school Lycée Sinowath in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. At times, she lived with her ​​younger sister, Khieu Thirith in Paris, where she dealt with the study of the Khmer language.

Khieu Ponnary became the mistress of the communist leader Pol Pot, whose revolutionary activities supported them and whom she married in 1956. In 1965, she had to go into hiding.

After the seizure of power by the Khmer Rouge in 1975, she spent four years as chairman of the National Women's Association of Cambodia. It was celebrated as the " mother of the revolution ".

Since 1978 she has increasingly suffered from a mental disease, so she went for treatment to China without the road to recovery. Pol Pot was divorced in 1985 from her.

Khieu Ponnary died in 2003 from cancer.

• Member of the Khmer Rouge
• Cambodian
• Born in 1920
• Died in 2003
• Woman