Menen Asfaw (baptismal name: Walatta Giyorgis; 25 March 1889 – 15 February 1962)[3] was Empress of Ethiopia as the wife of Emperor Haile Selassie.

[4] According to both published and unpublished reports, the then Woizero Menen Asfaw was first given in marriage by her family to the prominent Wollo nobleman, Dejazmach Ali Mohammed of Cherecha at a very young age, as was the prevailing custom.

[5] This first marriage ended in divorce, and her natal family then arranged for Woizero Menen to marry Dejazmach Amede Ali Aba-Deyas, another very prominent nobleman of Wollo.

He therefore terminated the arrangement (whether marriage or engagement) between Woizero Menen and Ras Leulseged, and sent her to Harar to marry Dejazmach Tafari Makonnen.

[7] The account given in the Autobiography of the Emperor, My Life and Ethiopia's Progress, mentions no previous marriage or children of Empress Menen and no such order by Iyasu, but states only that at the age of 20, they were married by their own mutual consent, and describes her as "a woman without any malice whatsoever".

The Empress made numerous pilgrimages to Holy Sites in then British-ruled Palestine, in Syria and in Lebanon, during her exile to pray for her occupied homeland.

In her public role she combined religious piety, concern for social causes, and support for development schemes with the majesty of her Imperial status.

Outwardly she was the dutiful wife, visiting schools, churches, exhibitions and model farms, attending public and state events at her husband's side or by herself.

She avoided the publicly political role that her predecessor as Empress-consort, Empress Taytu Betul, had taken, which had caused deep resentment in government circles during the reign of Menelik II.

The Empress and some of her family were placed under house arrest briefly during the 1960 Imperial Guard coup attempt against her husband at her villa outside the Guenete Leul Palace grounds in northern Addis Ababa.

Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold delivered her eulogy paying tribute to her charity, her piety, and her role as advisor and helpmate to the Emperor, as well as her personal kindness and goodness.

Later, the Emperor built a pair of grand sarcophagi in the north transept of Holy Trinity Cathedral's nave, in order to transfer his wife's remains there and eventually be buried at her side himself.

[10] The emperor's own autobiography mentions that his joy in 1941 following Ethiopia's liberation from Fascist Occupation was tempered by the grief of learning that his eldest child, Princess Romanework, had died under detention in Italy.