Taha Family

The Taha family is a well-known and prominent Iraqi family that originally belongs to the distinguished Tae tribe that initially lived in the northern Jazeera region of Iraq in which is famous for its generosity, hospitality and ethical tribal kindheartedness. To give you a perspective of their illustrious history and backgroundwe will summarize 5 generations of the Taha family.

HAJI TAHA YAHIA AL TAIEE

In the mid-18th Century, Hajji Taha moved to Basra a booming city at the time and his drive and motivation lead him to purchase several lands and properties, which eventually became valuable investments. Hajji Taha remained and lived in Basra until he passed away in 1912.

JUDGE ISSA TAHA (1901 – 1975)

His son Issa Taha studied his primary and secondary schools in Basra and graduated from the college of Law in Baghdad in 1923 to become the first judge in several middle Euphrates cities of Iraq such as Najaf, Babylon, and Karbala where he then became a successful private sector advocate and an active Member of Parliament after very good years of civil service with the Iraqi Ministry of Justice.

His son Khalid followed his father’s footsteps and graduated in 1950 from the University of Law in Baghdad and went directly to the private sector and successfully graduating to become one of the famous and well established lawyers in Iraq, especially on Iraqi-international law. He was appointed as legal advisor for many International and well-known companies in Iraq,particularly during the booming era of 1975-1985.   Due to his anti-Saddam attitude, he was sent to prison in 1982 and released in 1985 and decided to move to the UK in 1989 as a safe haven to open an office in London and an NGO called Lawyers without Borders that included many anti-Saddam political activities till the end of the Saddam dictatorship in 2003.   He continued his support and legal advice to upgrade and modernize the Iraqi law system till his death in 2011 as an Iraqi-British citizen. He was married to Aida Izzat Tahseen, the daughter of the well-recognized pharmacist Izzet Tahseen who wasthe owner of the first pharmacy in Hilla-Babylon and graduated from Sheffield University on a master degree in Political Economics in 1954.

Two More Generations?