Osama anwar okasha biography template

Waheed Hamed is a self-proclaimed anti-radical. The widely acclaimed screenwriter has focused his five-decade career almost entirely on fighting the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt. In June , the second season of the television serial Al-Gamaa (“The Brotherhood”)—which traces the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood from the death of its founder Hassan El-Banna through the late s—ignited controversy for portraying Gamal Abdel Nasser as a member of the now-banned Islamist group. Rather, Hamed’s true intentions, he clarified in a beleaguered TV appearance, were to denounce the Brotherhood’s actions and reveal “the truth about them and the poison they injected in society.”

Raised in Sharqiya, Lower Egypt, Hamed, 74, is the son of illiterate farmers. He started writing short stories in s Cairo before switching to radio dramas upon the advice of novelist Yusuf Idris, who took notice of Hamed’s dramatic flair. His cinematic career took off shortly after one of his radio dramas highlighting Egypt’s flawed criminal justice system, Sad Night Bird, was turned into a hit movie. Since then, he has written more than seventy films, TV serials, radio dramas, and plays. His black comedy Terrorism and Kebab became a cultural landmark of the Mubarak era, portraying one man’s hapless battle against Egypt’s corrupt bureaucracy and poking fun at the government’s inability to deal with terrorism. His controversial works have made Hamed the target of criticism, lawsuits, and even personal threats. Today, Hamed is in the constant company of a personal bodyguard.

Cairo Review Associate Editor Nadeen Shaker interviewed Hamed at the Grand Nile Tower Hotel in downtown Cairo on September 11,

CAIRO REVIEW:Are your television dramas a political project?
WAHEED HAMED: They’re a societal project first. That’s their origins. Some serials aimed to combat terrorism, which is a societal question anyway. Where is terrorism? Just today all the newspapers were talkin

With Egypt’s reigning queen of scriptwriting: Mariam Na‘oum

Daring, determined, and ambitious, Egyptian scriptwriter Mariam Na‘oum’s string of controversial television series is proof that behind her coquettish, pretty looks and friendly demeanor is a force to be reckoned with.

Armed with an infectious smile, a passion for cinema, and an unequivocal determination to make a difference, Na‘oum has never shied away from breaking taboos and speaking her mind. Her audacity has catapulted her to glittering star status and made her indisputably the leading Egyptian scriptwriter.

Her portfolio includes unforgettable work like the award-winning feature Wahed Sefr (One- Zero), which was directed by Kamla Abu Zikry and won the prestigious Muhr Arab Feature Award for Best Scriptwriter at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

Her work also includes Moga Harra (Heat Wave), directed by Mohammed Yassin; Bint Esmaha Zaat (A Girl Called Zaat), ; and Segn el-Nessa (The Women’s Prison), , also directed by Abu Zikry. Rowayat met with Na‘oum to discover the woman behind the writer and to speak to her about the future of the Egyptian filmmaking industry.

From mathematical whiz kid to aspiring scriptwriter

Born into a family of artists, it seemed inevitable for Na‘oum to catch the culture bug from an early age. “I was very lucky to have been brought up in a household that believes in the importance of music, art, and literature,” she reveals. Na‘oum is the daughter of author Nabil Na‘oum, and artist and jewelry designer Suzanne Elmasry.

Despite her infatuation with the art world and her constant hunger for books, Na‘oum’s childhood ambition was to become an engineer. “As a child growing up, I used to read so much that it annoyed my friends, but I always knew that I wanted to become an engineer.” In pursuit of this goal, she moved to France, where she completed her high school degree at Lycée Fénelon, Collège Jacques Prévert and enrolled at Tolbiac Univ

“May God have mercy on your days… If only another [like you] would come!”[1] In recent years, this melancholic homage to King Faruq has appeared repeatedly on Facebook pages that romanticize the Egyptian monarchal period (). The sentimental yearning for the monarchy is a reaction to present popular grievances, in particular the lack of stability, security, freedom, and economic opportunities in Egyptian society today. This nostalgia is clearly detached from historical reality, and selectively highlights positive aspects from the past. The Egyptian monarchy is increasingly viewed through such “rose-tinted glasses” because of the lack of visible prospects for the future.

Nostalgia for the monarchy was first expressed during the final years of the Mubarak era. Until then, the monarchy had been presented in a negative light by the Egyptian state ever since King Faruq, the last monarch, was overthrown by the Free Officers in July School textbooks and state-sanctioned history books largely presented the monarchy in a negative light, highlighting the corruption of the Palace and its failure to resolve issues of inequality and poverty. The humiliating events of February 4, [2] and the defective arms scandal of [3] were remembered as important turning points that eroded the legitimacy and popularity of the monarchy. King Faruq himself was presented as a gambler and a womanizer, living a lavish lifestyle.

However, the monarchal period began drawing interest during the later years of the Mubarak regime. Media attention to members of the former royal family increased and included interviews with Faruq’s daughter Princess Farial[4] and King’s Fuʾad II’s ex-wife Queen Fadila.[5] Moreover, Princess Nevine ʿAbbas Halim of the royal family published her memoirs in Arabic in [6] In , two Al-Ahram Weekly specials[7] marked the occasion of the bicentenary of dynasty founder Muhammad ʿAli Pasha's coming to power by celebrating him as