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The dancehall divas who set the pace in Egyptâs roaring 20s
Midnight in Cairo tells how the cityâs vibrant nightlife was driven by female cabaret entertainers and club entrepreneurs
Cairo entertainer and nightclub owner Badia Masabni, centre, with her troupe. Photograph: Courtesy of Lucie Ryzova
Cairo entertainer and nightclub owner Badia Masabni, centre, with her troupe. Photograph: Courtesy of Lucie Ryzova
Sun 2 May 2021 07.00 EDT
The birth of the womenâs movement in Egypt is not usually associated with music hall singers, dancers and actresses. But it was on the stages of theatres and nightclubs in Cairo, in the roaring 20s, that early feminists first asserted themselves, a new book will argue.
The dancehall divas who set the pace in Egypt’s roaring 20s Donna Ferguson
The birth of the women’s movement in Egypt is not usually associated with music hall singers, dancers and actresses. But it was on the stages of theatres and nightclubs in Cairo, in the roaring 20s, that early feminists first asserted themselves, a new book will argue.
The capital’s biggest stars were independent, transgressive Arabic-speaking women who, in the 1920s, were seeking to redefine their place in the world, according to Raphael Cormack, the author of
One example was Badia Masabni, who ran and owned one of the most famous cabarets in Cairo. “She was a well-known singer and dancer, so every night she would always perform. But she was also famous for going around the world finding other cabaret acts to bring in,” said Cormack.
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Street has become a cinema, while its shell is now used as storage for many of the shops around.
Dubai of the 1920s: during the second half of the 19th century, Mohammed Ali’s grandson Ismail the Magnificent turned Azbakeya into Egypt’s modern nightlife and entertainment district, opening Egypt’s first opera house there in 1869, as well as other theatres and a circus. By the 1920s, Cairo was a boom town, full of new investment and new development – one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world
If you walk along Emad
al
-Din
Street, which in the 1920s was the main centre of action, you will still find several old theatres and cinemas from different time periods. One of them is the Naguib al-Rihani Theatre, formerly the Ramses Theatre, where Youssef Wahbi and his troupe used to play in the 20s and 30s. Many of these places are horribly run down. But in 2018, Cairo’s best modern art house cinema – Zawya – did relocate to one of the old cinemas on Emad Al-D