This translated article is unique. Unlike most of the translated articles on this web, it is not coming from an Egyptian old magazine but Turkish! The article comes from '20 asir' magazine, volume 15 (22th of November 1952), and talks about the horrible behaviour of King Faruk towards women (and probably dancers). The translation and the physical magazine were kindly provided to the museum by Anne-Sofie. Thank you very much!
You can read the translation to English below, or read the original in Turkish at the bottom of the translation.
The women King Faruk likes
Belly dance takes the observer to the worlds of sweet pleasures. Not much after (General Mohammed) Neguib had taken power, he banned belly dancing which was very popular in Egypt. The dancers who were without any jobs had to move to other places. Two weeks after the ban, one of them was already on our (Turkish) stages. We should give the credit for Semirazad’s art. According to our first impression, she seems to lack the features of a femme fatale. We believe that she was not close with Faruk. "I have danced three to four times in the palace for the King. But apparently, it did not take a lot of his attention because he did not give me any compliments. It is true that he was close to Samia Gamal," she says.
It is obvious that Samia has the qualities of a femme fatale. Not only did she steal the attention of Faruk’s interest but also stole his heart and gained great benefits. Whilst the news about the love adventures of Faruk is all over the globe, his citizens take it sadly and are growing hate against him. He is oblivious about that and continues to have adventures, from one to another.
To be able to understand how Faruk is having fun, let’s take a look at the memoirs of Egyptian doctor Kamil Abdul which were published on ‘Corriere della Sera’:
“You probably know and remember me, your highness. One day you came to visit a field at the seaside where thousands of labourers were working. I was the doctor of those workers. Perhaps, you also recognize my wife as well… But your past is full of the wives of the people who are close to you; I will give you a hint not to task your memory. You will think that those letters are the complaints of someone who is one of the victims of your countless womanizing immoral behaviours. But the truth is you couldn’t take anything from me, especially not my wife and honour.
That day the weather was so hot, and your men arranged several alcohol bottles in ice buckets for you. You wanted to be introduced to my wife. Do you remember your highness, how embarrassed and excited she was when she was kneeling before you? You showed great kindness and kept us for eating by making my wife sit next to you. And not so long before you started the usual act of yours that also made you be banished from your country.
You took a piece of ice from one of the buckets and threw it into my wife's dress down her collar like throwing a letter to a mailbox. Then you also put your hand in the dress and started pushing the ice deeper and deeper. You could see the embarrassment on her face for being the object of such a joke. But you kept going until she passed out. The laughter of yours while you are saying, "How is it? Do you like it? Do you want one more?" still resonates on that beach… Do you remember that scene? Do you remember the scene of the embarrassment of a woman, and the red face of my wife? And do you remember my face while I am looking at you? I am a man of science, your highness; I don’t see you as a holy person; I see you as a piece of meat. And I saw a piece of meat playing with a piece of ice on my wife’s neck. There was no option for me except to smile like every servant of yours. Those were the acts of yours in a place where the Quran is the law, in which it says, “kill who dares to look into your wife’s eyes”. And those laws are valid for anyone no matter whether they are rich, poor, old or young… This is why you lost your throne, your highness.”
He was very much into women, and it was going even further. For example, lots of military officers have beautiful wives. Faruk knew those women and sent their husbands to another place. The next day, he visited the houses without their husbands. These visits were not even close to being romantic and always accompanied by his close friend Ömer Fethi and his gun. Fethi's duty was to take care of the unexpected return of their husband. It happened lots of times in Faruk's life. Once he was with a married woman, and the husband suddenly came home. Ömer was in another room with another woman. So the officer found an opportunity to enter the bedroom and find the king with his wife in his bed. They started fighting, and Ömer immediately came to the bedroom. He hesitated to shoot because the officer's family was very wealthy. But when it came to the point of the officer choking king Faruk, he (Ömer) shot the officer, and he died. The next day, the news said that there was a disagreement between the officer and his father, and eventually, he (the officer) committed suicide."
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