Written by Viola Shafik.

The role of women in cinema has greatly evolved in the last 80 years. In Egypt, women of all faiths have played a pivotal role: in the late 1920s and early 1930s some worked as popular performers (Fatima Rushdi) or scriptwriters and directors, venturing into film production with their own money. One of the very first full-length Egyptian fiction films, “Layla” (1927), was co-directed and produced by theatre actress `Aziza Amir. Lebanese Assia Daghir did the same with “The Lady from the Desert” in 1929, and remained one of Egypt’s most important producers until the 1980s. She also appeared on screen, whereas con-genial Bahiga Hafiz, musical composer starred and directed in 1937 the lavish costume drama (and nationalist allegory) “Layla, the Bedouin”.

Female singers also played a major role in the nascent Egyptian film industry of the 1930s – their fame and glamorous star personae had already made them stars outside their own country. One of the first was the “Star of Orient” singer Umm Kulthum and Lebanese Asmahan, followed by the “Cinderella of Screen”, Layla Murad, who then gave way to more seductive vamp figures such as Huda Sultan and Shadia or Sabah. While singers gradually dissapeared from the screen in the 1960s, dramatic actresses, such as Fatin Hamama remained the unquestioned star of melodrama from the 1950s until the early 1990s. She was joined by Hind Rustum and gifted Su`ad Husni, later followed by a less sophisticated generation, including Madiha Kamil, Nadia al-Gindi, Layla ‘Ilwi. Also, numerous belly dancers helped to develop the modern oriental dance via screen, most notably Tahiyya Cariocca and Samia Gamal in the 1940s and 50s, while varieté dancers such as Na`ima `Akif in the 1950s, Nelly in the 1970s and Sharihan during the 1980s enriched the local music hall film and Ramadan TV-serials.

Female performers were usually unable to attain star status that extended to other parts of the Arab world unless they worked in the Egyptian film industry. There were exceptions, however: Lebanese singer Fayruz and the less known Sahurra, Qammar and Nawal Farid who appeared before the outbreak of Civil War in 1975 when the Lebanese film industry almost eclipsed Egyptian production. Syrian singer Asmahan (1940s) and Lebanese singer Sabah (1950s to 60s), the Algerian singer Warda al-Jaza’iriyya and very recently Tunisian actress Hind Sabri attained their popularity through Egyptian movies.

Tunisia has produced numerous well trained and highly gifted actresses over the years, despite the fact that Haydée Chikly who featured in the first two Tunisian films, the short Zuhra (1922) and the full-length “The Girl from Carthage” (1924), directed by her father Albert Chikly, could not obtain her family’s agreement to become a professional. After independence, a vivid theatre movement with dozens of partly experimental troupes has helped produce highly capable actresses who have enriched Tunisian cinema. Amnong them are Mouna Noureddine, Jalila Baccar, Hélène Catzaras, Ghalia Lacroix and Amal Hdhili. Unlike Algeria which has no considerable theatre movement but, where Kulthum, the leading player of the anti-colonial “Wind from the Aurès” (1966), was one of the few North African performers who was ever assigned a role in a work that belonged to earlier European produced Colonial Film of the-independence era.

More recently, moralism and religiosity have, in some instances, become an obstacle for female performers. Since the late 1980s until 1994 over 20 Egyptian actresses have decided to withdraw from show business altogether: In recent years, however, the number of Egytpian films released each year has started to grow again, lending new opportunities to women. Today in Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait, more and more women are making their appearance in TV and film productions as writers and directors. Lebanese cinema is booming and producing new stars like Nadine Labaki. Formerly a music video director, Lebaki’s most recent film, “Where Do We Go Now?”, supported by the Doha Film Institute, has won a number of international film prizes.

Viola Shafik is the author of “Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity”.