Biography

Her parents did not approve of her becoming a belly dancer, because it was frowned upon in the Islam faith. She gave up dancing in 1963 but as late as the mid-1980's ran her own theater in Cairo, helping to write, choose plays, directing, and producing. She took to wearing the Islamic headscarf before retiring completely from public view 13 years ago. Though the hold of fundamentalist Islam on Egyptian society has virtually wiped out public manifestations of her art, she was in the end granted the official approval her parents withheld, as the Egyptian Culture Minister, Farouk Hosni, led her funeral procession. The stuff of legend, she married 14 different husbands and once slapped King Farouk when he threw an ice cube down her dress. She had roles in more than 300 movies and television shows.