Overview

A vibrant portrait of the talented and entrepreneurial women who defined an era in Cairo. One of the world's most multicultural cities, twentieth-century Cairo was a magnet for the ambitious and talented. During the 1920s and '30s, a vibrant music, theater, film, and cabaret scene flourished, defining what it meant to be a modern Egyptian. Women came to dominate the Egyptian entertainment industry--as stars of the stage and screen but also as impresarias, entrepreneurs, owners, and promoters of a new and strikingly modern entertainment industry. Raphael Cormack unveils the rich histories of independent, enterprising women like vaudeville star Rose al-Youssef (who launched one of Cairo's most important newspapers); nightclub singer Mounira al-Mahdiyya (the first woman to lead an Egyptian theater company) and her great rival, Oum Kalthoum (still venerated for her soulful lyrics); and other fabulous female stars of the interwar period, a time marked by excess and unheard-of freedom of expression. Buffeted by crosswinds of colonialism and nationalism, conservatism and liberalism, religious and secular values, patriarchy and feminism, this new generation of celebrities offered a new vision for women in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.

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9798200780235

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Raphael Cormack has a PhD in Egyptian theater from the University of Edinburgh and is currently a visiting researcher at Columbia University. He is an award-winning editor and translator and has written on Arabic culture for the London Review of Books and elsewhere. Christine Rendel is a British-born audiobook narrator living in New York City. With an acting and musical background, as well as a long healthcare career, she has narrated nearly forty fiction and nonfiction books for major publishers as well as small independent houses. Her favorite genres include cozy mystery, romance, drama, fantasy, and biography. Christine maintains a professional home studio on the end of eastern Long Island, where she loves to narrate and produce audiobooks, surrounded by nature, her family, two dogs, and a lot of Koi fish. Christine is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, the Audio Publishers Association, and Actors' Equity Association.

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