Iffat bint Mohammad Al Thunayan[1] (Arabic: عفت بنت محمد الثنيان ʿIffat bint Moḥammad Āl Ṯunayān, Turkish: Muhammed Es-Süneyyan kızı İffet or Turkish: Emire İffet; 1916 – 17 February 2000) was a Turkish-born education activist and Saudi princess who was the most prominent wife of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

[5] He was born in 1843 on the day his father Abdullah bin Thunayan, Emir of Nejd, died.

[6] He left Nejd for Constantinople where he married a Circassian-origin Turkish woman, Tazeruh Hanım.

[5] Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Thunayan, Iffat's father, was a physician in the Ottoman army and her mother, Asia, was a Turkish woman.

[2] Prince Faisal, who served as viceroy of the Hijaz, took Iffat back to Turkey with her aunt.

They had nine children[4] – five sons and four daughters: Mohammad, Bandar, Saud, Turki, Abdul Rahman, Lolowah, Sarah, Latifa and Haifa.

In stark contrast, only six of the 107 children of Faisal's older half-brother Saud even completed high school.

[19] Her "Saudi Renaissance Movement" sponsored free clinics and literary classes for women.

[21] A majority of the teachers were Egyptian or Yemenis, and the girls' section was strictly for daughters of the extended royal family.

[2] In 1955, Iffat initiated Saudi Arabia's first private school for women in Jeddah — the Dar Al Hanan (literally "House of Affection").

[23] In 1967, Iffat launched the Nahdah Al Saudiyyah, an organization that educated illiterate Riyadh women.

[24] In August 1999, Iffat established Effat University adjacent to Dar Al Hanan[2] just months before her death.

[17][28] In August 1993 Iffat underwent surgery due to bowel ailment at medical center of Duke University.

[31] In 2014 Joseph A. Kéchichian published a book entitled Iffat Al Thunayan: An Arab Queen.