Mahmud Barzanji
She was born in 1847 the ruling family in Sanandaj, second largest city of Iranian Kurdistan. She married Kurdish King Osman Pasha Jaff, whose headquarters was in Halabja. Her husband Osman Pasha Jaff, was a Pasha and she ruled in his place at her husband’s absence. Her father was the grand visir of Persia and her uncles were grand visirs of the Ottoman Empire and Saudi Arabia. Adela Jaff was one of the few rulers that were women in the region. The British invaded German Ottoman Iraq during World War I and conquered it with the treaty of Mudros in 1917. They wished to give the Kurds Autonomy by setting up the Mosul commission in 1918. They gave Mahmud Barzanji power, but he revolted and launched a campaign to murder all British political officers assigned to each tribe in 1919. She was even revered by the British because of her acts of mercy towards British captives, who were a part of the Mesopotamian invasion during World War I.