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.
