“Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt’s Roaring ‘20s” by Raphael Cormack (2021)
Review by Aubre Hill
A mixture of historical biography, trashy tabloid, and uplifting feminism, “Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt’s Roaring ‘20s” by Raphael Cormack brings to life interwar Cairo through the stories of nine pivotal women of Egypt’s entertainment history.
Cormack sets the scene by looking at the evolving entertainment industry of Esbekiyya, a now quiet area of Cairo that once was the bustling entertainment center of Egypt. We journey through the evolution of Esbekiyya from the late nineteenth century under Ottoman Rule to British occupation, both World Wars, Independence, and through the development of technology from early music recordings to film. Additionally, this entertainment district was embedded in illegal activity including gambling, drugs, prostitution, and gangs. It is the setting for dramatic stories, ambitious lives, and the kind of gritty details you expect from the fringe of society.
This book is well researched and packed with sometimes laborious details as Cormack overlaps references to paint a complex picture of the political landscape and evolving role of women in Egyptian society. Rarely are entertainers valued as academic study in Egypt. Often the sheer association to the entertainment world can discredit someone’s reputation and social standing, so Cormack’s approach is provocative from the start.
He weaves the stories of singers, dancers, and actresses finding even the smallest associations to place these women in continuity from the greats Oum Kalthoum, Tahiyya Carioca, and Badia Masabni to the less known Mounira al-Mahdiyya, Rose al-Youssef, Naima al-Misriyya, Fatima Rushdi, Fatima Sirri, and Aziza Amir. Although this book focuses on the women of the time period, we become intimately aware of the influence certain men had on the entertainment landscape such as the continual presence of Youssef Wahbi, Naquib al-Rihani, and Aziz Eid as producers, directors, actors, and even lovers.
Cormack uncovers common themes. Many of these women grew up poor in the Delta region of Egypt and after their father’s death moved to Cairo to pursue their dreams in Esbekiyya. Without familial constraints, these women were both free to explore their careers in entertainment and also lacked a safety net which encouraged riskier decisions. Through these stories, we discover how differently each star approached the times spanning the 1890s to 1960s, changing politics as Egypt became less diverse and moved towards Nationalism, and the grand wealth that came with success. More often than not, these women died in obscurity with little to show for their careers.
The overwhelming details easily get distracting. The importance of a young Edward Said sneaking into a Tahiyya Carioca performance in 1950 seems irrelevant to Cariocas’s story besides the fact Said went on to become a world renown literary figure decades later. The lack of editing did not deter Cormack’s own intention to highlight legendary women from Egyptian’s entertainment industry often forgotten including Mounira al-Mahdiyya whom he continually parallels to Oum Kalthoum, considered the greatest Arab singer of all time. He notes their constrasting approaches and more than suggests patriarchy to their differing reception and legacies as Kalthoum portrayed herself in a restrained and private manner where Mahdiyya defied gender roles and even played traditionally men’s parts in her plays.
“Midnight in Cairo” is a fun read especially for anyone interested in Cairo history and Egyptian entertainment. It is full of seedy lives tinted with nostalgia and wrapped in an anthemic fervor uplifting the underdog, in this case low class women fighting their way to stardom and independence. The book builds to a Hollywood style finish which is satisfying in much the same way those grand movies are, lacking richer substance but triumphantly inspiring nonetheless. “Life in the interwar period of the twentieth century remains so seductive because many of its people were convinced that the world could, and would, improve….Their struggles and successes remind us not that things were perfect, but that they can always be different.”