PHOTO CREDIT: Above photo by John Rickman Photography, San Jose, California.

• Introduction
• Scandal at an Innocent Age
• Emigration to Argentina
• In Buenos Aires
• Nazla's Marriage
• Badia and the School

• Tying the Ropes
• Related Articles
• About the Translator

At the beginning of the 20th Century the Arab world began to witness a big leap in many fields: political, social, and cultural. During this stage in people's lives, they began to accept and absorb new things, but with some hesitance.

In those days, there were no radio stations, television broadcasts, or satellite channels, and cinema was in its early stages. Performing arts were somewhat limited like every other art form that later evolved and then spread widely during the last century. Things were so restricted that women did not even leave their homes to get an education.

It was amid these circumstances that Badia Masabni appeared. In just a few years, the blonde from the Levant was able to set the streets of Cairo aflame and transform its night into day through acting and dancing. She was one of the pioneers in the art of dance as well as one of the stars of the stage of the 1930's. She was the leading actress in such films as Oum el Sa3ad (Saad's Mother), Malket el Masareh (Queens of the Stage), and others. She was also the leading actress in many famous theater plays such as El Layale El Melah. She owned the largest and most popular sala not only in Egypt, but also in the entire Middle East, "Casino Badia". She was the owner of a private raqs sharqi school whose graduates included such famous stars as Taheya Carioca, Samia Gamal, Beba Ezz El Din and Hekmet Fahmy among others. Badia was also the leader of a theater group from which emerged such top stars as Ismail Yaseen.

The story of Badia's life is full of accidents and strange situations. She began from zero and faced misery and hardship in her early life. The years of her life passed among waves of highs and lows, in two worlds. She suffered from hunger and poverty and tasted deprivation and rough living, and then she lived a good life in every way. The heads of important men bowed down to her. It was among all the ups and downs and the misery and the happiness, the light and the darkness that Badia lived her life, which we will recount throughout the following chapters.

No one knows for certain what year Badia was born, probably in 1894 in Damascus. Her father was Lebanese, her mother Syrian. Her father owned a small soap making business which was the only source of income for the entire family. The neighborhood in Damascus that Badia was born in was famous for its soap making industry; hence, the family took the surname "Masabni". [Translator's note: "Masabna" in Arabic means "place where soap is made" from the word "sabon" which means "soap" and "Masabni" translates to "Soap Maker".]

Badia's family consisted of seven siblings. Her father worked day and night up until the day he died to be able to provide for the family. None of his children were qualified to replace him. However, they had no choice but to try and manage the soap business that their father had left them, their only source of income.

Things did not remain stable for very long. On a dark night, the soap factory caught on fire and it burned down completely along with everything inside of it.

Shortly after this incident, one of Badia's brothers died of fever. He was the one who had been expected to take over the father's role, so Badia's family entered a life of poverty and deprivation. Sadness fell upon the entire family.

Badia had one brother who was morally corrupt, who became a burden upon the entire family. One night he just left. The family tried in vain to convince him to return so that he could help them out in during this difficult period.

Badia's mother could not find any other way to support the family other than selling her jewelry. But she wasn't able to benefit from this money because it was stolen by thieves.

The shadow of poverty refused to leave this family's home and their nights became darker and their days harder. Badia was a small child at the time, witnessing all these unbearable tragedies.

Badia had an alcoholic brother who used to hang out at a local bar that Badia passed on her way home from school. She would daily pick up a piece of candy from her brother, which made her as happy as any kid with a piece of candy could be.

One day Badia didn't see her brother there, so she asked the bar owner where he was. The bar owner lied to her and told her that her brother was inside the bar. When she entered the bar to check, the bar owner pounced on her and raped her. Badia cried and screamed for help but it was useless. She returned to her house terribly upset and told her mother, who began slapping her own cheeks and crying. [Translator's note: Slapping one's own cheeks was a sign of sorrow or mourning or when facing scandal.]

Then she took her daughter and went to the bar along with el Hara Sheik (the neighborhood Elder) and she found her son sitting next to the man who had raped his sister. The Hara Sheik apprehended him and the scandal spread. The rapist was sentenced to one year in prison, and Badia's brother was sentenced to six months.

ABOUT THE PHOTO: Badia Masabni is wearing a costume representative of the Levant.

Badia's older sister had married before this incident that turned the family's life into hell. Her husband had inherited a house from his father in a suburb of Damascus as well as some money. He depended on that money to live off of, because he didn't look for work. Then the money ran out and life between him and Badia's sister became unbearable so she returned again to her family's home. Her return caused a larger burden upon the already impoverished family. After a short time Badia's sister died, leaving behind a small daughter whom the father took, and they were never heard from again.

When life became even harder for this family, they decided to go to a monastery to get away from the atmosphere of poverty, despair, shame, and scandal that had fallen upon them after the rape of Badia. Her sister Nazla worked as a seamstress. In a short time she became quite skillful and began to search for a place to open a business. Nazla chose the old family home and then began to look for girls to hire as helpers. But the local families refused to send their daughters to the house because of what had happened to Badia. Badia's rape cast a shadow on the entire family and caused them to live in isolation from their neighbors. No one would have anything to do with them, and people would say mean things to Badia's sisters wherever they went. These sisters would then take it out on Badia by hitting her and cursing at her, until it reached the point where one of the sisters threatened to either commit suicide or kill Badia if their mother did not agree to leave the country.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the emigration of Levantine people to South America was at its peak. Many factors, both social and political, contributed to the emigration of a large number of them to that continent, and they became a notable presence there. So many did this that one of them even became the president of Argentina, Carlos Menem.

In order to raise the necessary funds to travel, Badia's mother mortgaged the family home in Damascus for two hundred pounds. And so, Badia left Damascus accompanied by her mother and her sister Nazla. They traveled first to Beirut and met up with her brothers in Der el Natur and walked to the port and boarded a ship in fourth class.

ABOUT THE PHOTO: Badia is wearing a Tunisian style of dress.

The trip was long and difficult. Every time the family faced a difficult situation they would look towards Badia and would treat her badly by hitting her and cursing at her and insulting her because they felt that she was the cause of all the hardships they were facing. This led Badia to search for protection among the ship's crew, who defended her and showed her kindness until the family arrived in Argentina.

And so the ship reached the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Badia and her family disembarked, joining many other expatriates who had left their countries as well. The family was not related to any of the passengers who had traveled on that ship and they didn't even know any of the other passengers. They mixed in with the other Arabs who were living in a popular designated Arab neighborhood.

Badia's family took up residence on a dirty and frightening street where only poor people lived. Six people lived in one room because they had no other alternative. Life for the family members was very difficult. They were forced to commute long distances to faraway areas for work and in the evenings they would return exhausted with just a small amount of money that wasn't enough to cover their basic necessities.

In spite of this, they would dance and sing at night, because immigrants are the children of one language with a common destiny and ultimately they had all chosen exile in search of better fortune, though in Badia's family's case they chose exile as a means to escape shame and scandal which they'd had no fault in causing.

One day when Badia's two brothers were at work, the merchant that they worked for walked in and a conversation ensued between them. The brothers commented to him that they lived with their mother and their two sisters. The merchant told them that he had not always been a successful business owner but that he had started out as an employee at first. He gave them much encouragement and then asked their permission to visit them at their home because he had taken a liking to them and felt that they were different from most of the other immigrants that he dealt with in his business.

At their house, the merchant met the rest of the family members and displayed a particular fondness for Nazla. This stranger, whose name was Michael Gareos, repeatedly visited the home until one day he asked for Nazla's hand in marriage despite the fact that he was more than 50 years old and was already married to two other women. Nazla, however, was dreaming of a young husband to compensate for all the sadness and bitterness that she'd been forced to taste. Michael showered the family with gifts and he even sent Badia to a boarding school, so in view of all these temptations the family decided to sell Nazla to him to try and escape from the difficult economic situation that they faced. And so she married him. However, Badia and her family obtained no happiness from Nazla's marriage which pushed the two brothers to laziness. Each of them pocketed the cash from the items that they sold until their dishonesty and thieving were exposed and the store went bankrupt. They escaped their responsibility in the matter as usual, by quitting their jobs and the matter was closed when they stopped working for Michael and announced that they were thinking of traveling out of the country again.

The two young men chose to travel to different destinations and the family was scattered, so the mother felt that Badia must be taken out of school and returned to her home. She went to the school and asked the principal to return her daughter to her. But the principal refused because she did not know her and she felt that the person responsible for the child was Michael. The mother became enraged and began screaming and tried to break down the door until all the nuns came and gathered around her. Her screams became louder until Badia felt very frightened because she did not wish to return home and she loved her life at this school. Badia was returned to her mother with tears in her eyes and fearful of being returned to a home full of torment. She remembered her life at school and the kindness of the nuns, the love that her teachers showed her and their happiness that she had mastered the Spanish language in such a short time. She was heartbroken when she recalled her days at the school theater.

Badia's first exposure to theater was at this school where she was given acting and singing roles which she performed perfectly. The nuns discovered how talented she was and they helped her to develop her talent. To Badia, the theater was a beautiful life where she could escape from the darkness that haunted her.

One day Badia took advantage of her mother's absence and ran away from home and back to the school, to the place where she could forget the grief, despair and boredom and where she only knew the meaning of happiness and humanity. She was in a state of exhaustion, constantly looking around like a thief waiting for the police to arrive as tears streamed down her face. The nuns treated her kindly and the principal was very kind to this unfortunate child and she welcomed her and accepted her back at the school. They notified her sister Nazla and let her know that Badia was back at school but they asked her not to tell her mother.

After the mother discovered Badia's absence she went crazy and began searching for her everywhere. She asked Nazla if she knew her whereabouts but Nazla pretended not to know where her sister was. So the mother thought of the school and went there, screaming and crying and begging the people at the school until even bystanders off the street gathered around and sympathized with her. There was no other choice but to hand Badia over to her mother.

So she returned home to the specter of loneliness and despair that filled her with fear. The mother felt that Badia was the cause of all their misery and that she had brought them shame. If it had not been for her, the family would be living with dignity in their house in Damascus. She could not forget how her home had been filled with happiness, and then how empty it became after the death of her husband, then her son and then her oldest daughter in the Levant, and the mortgaged home in the Levant loomed like a shadow in front of her that she dreamed of returning to. Her dreams and hopes of a good and happy life had been dashed.

In the midst of all these thoughts, Badia felt pity for her mother and made an effort to forget. To forget the nuns, her schoolmates, the kindness, the candy, and the peaceful sleep, and she decided to remain with her mother.

Badia lived at home under continuing oppression. The peaceful moments with her mother were few and far between, and then quite suddenly her mother would quickly become angry and enraged. She would leave the house each day and spend the day away from home while Badia was kept locked in without being able to even see the street. The mother would lock Badia indoors to the point where Badia finally threatened that she would tear the door down if she continued to be kept locked in, at which the mother beat her and insulted her.

As if that weren't enough she then tied Badia with a rope before going out and locked her in, hungry cold and bound. Badia began to scream and ask for help and continued to do so for hours until the neighbors heard her, broke down the door, untied her, and brought her food. Badia then played with the other neighboring children in an attempt to distract herself.

As she played and jumped in the darkened room with the other kids Badia discovered a box on the floor that was full of money. Recalling the stories of ghosts and spirits, she felt certain that this was a gift from the spirits, and she began to hand out the money to her friends, and they went to buy candy. When her mother came home she angrily asked Badia who had untied her, and then took her home where she found the house in disarray and the empty money box on the floor. She screamed at Badia and hit her. Badia in turn tried to explain that the spirits had left the money there for them. The mother prompty told her to tell the spirits to take her with them, as she was like a curse upon them and she was the cause of all their problems.

In Badia's imagination, the box of money was like a myth. Just like the myths that children in the Arab world are brought up with, legends associated with magic and elves. But this was far from the truth, and Badia did wonder where he mother went every day when she left the house from morning until nightfall. She didn't know that the money in the box wasn't a gift from the spirits; but rather, it was the result of her mother selling merchandise door to door and on the streets for the past two years in an effort to save enough money to return to the Levant. She had faced intense harassment because she didn't have a street vendor's license as was required by the laws of the country.

The mother stood in front of her daughter crying in heartbreak, thinking of the effort of two years of working under threat (without a license). This box had held the efforts of her all work during all this time, and Badia didn't realize it. While they were still arguing over this, the owner of the building arrived carrying an envelope. It was a letter from Badia's aunt informing them that Badia's grandmother had died and had left an inheritance, and the mother and the aunt were the only heirs. The letter included an invitation for the mother to return again to Syria to claim her share of the inheritance. As usual, Badia's mother began to curse their exile, to curse Badia and to scratch her own cheeks cursing the day that she'd given birth to this child who had brought her nothing but shame.

Once Badia knew of their return to Syria, she began to remember the scandal and the difficult times they'd had there. The news of their impending return to the Levant began to haunt her like a ghost running behind her, and the memories of those days were replayed in her mind like a rewinding movie reel. She remembered the monster who raped her at the bar, and her two brothers, and the neighbors. The Levant, for her, meant torture and scandal and hell. But now her mother wanted to return to that hell.

ABOUT THE PHOTO: Badia Masabni is wearing a Syrian dress.

Biographical

• The Life of Badia Masabni
  • Part 1: Queen of Suffering and of the Night. Her early childhood in Syria and Argentina.
  • Part 2: Unlimited Pain. Badia's return to Syria (after Argentina) and her move to Lebanon with her mother.
  • Part 3: Escape from Her Mother's Hell. How Badia's family thwarted two marriage opportunities for Badia and made her live in squalor.
  • Part 4: Here's Cairo. Badia finally arrives in Egypt to pursue her dream of being an actress..
  • Part 5: The Return to Beirut. Badia continues to develop her acting skills in Egypt, then moves to Beirut.
  • Part 6: Fame in Beirut and Pain in Damascus. Badia's career change from acting to singing and dancing, and her rise to stardom in Beirut.
  • Part 7: The Beloved of the Public. Badia's continued stardom in Syria and Lebanon, her illness with smallpox, and the death of her mother.
  • Part 8: The Seeker of Love. Badia continues her singing and dancing career, adopts a daughter, and deals with man troubles.
  • Part 9: Crazy About Badia. Badia continues her career as a singer and dancer in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt.
  • Part 10: Naguib el-Rihani and the Theater. Badia's acting career soars while she performs in plays with el-Rihani's troupe.
  • Part 11: Marriage to Naguib el-Rihani. Badia marries Naguib el-Rihani and moves on to the next chapter in her life.
  • Parts 12 through 14 will be posted in the future.
• Historic Photos of Badia Masabni. Several photos of Badia collected by Priscilla.
• Was Badia Masabni Lebanese or Syrian? Priscilla Adum settles the question by explaining how Middle Eastern people view origins.
• Celebrity Bare Backs of the Golden Era. A gossip magazine shows the bare backs of Badia and other celebrities.
• Feeding the Chickens. Badia on her farm in Lebanon after retiring from club ownership in Cairo.
• Badia Masabni with Old Friends. A photo taken at Badia Masabni's dairy farm in Lebanon shows her posing with the Rahbani Brothers, Fairouz, Farid al-Atrache, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Najeeb Hankash, and Philemon Wehbe.

Badia, the Club Owner

• Badia Masabni: Fish of the Month. By George Sawa explains how the word "fish" is used in Arabic to compliment a dancer.
• Badia Masabni: Bada3da3. Translated by Priscilla Adum. Sometimes Badia Masabni took her troupe on tour to perform in Europe and other Arab countries. This article talks about such a tour in 1933.
• Badia Masabni on El Sabah Magazine Cover. Badia was featured on the cover of El Sabah Magazine in 1933.
• Badia Masabni on Kawakeb Magazine Cover. Badia was featured on the cover of Kawakeb in 1933.
• Badia Masabni's Dancers in 1935. Photo of Badia and her dancers.
• Badia Masabni's Dancers and the Stage Names of Actresses. Translated by Priscilla Adum. Photo of Badia and her dancers, along with brief article.
• Badia Masabni: The Lady and Her Clubs. By Priscilla Adum. The years of Badia's life that she ran nightclubs in Egypt.
• Badia Fights Back Against the Competition. Translated by Priscilla Adum. Probably sometime between spring 1937 and November 1940.
• Artists and Journalists at Badia's. Translated by Priscilla Adum. A review of the new show in 1938 Badia planned to present for her comeback to the theater after being swindled out of her previous one by Beba Ezz el-Din.
• Badia Masabni Satirizes the Hollywood Stars. Translated by Priscilla Adum.
• Isaac Dickson: Dance Instructor to Egyptian Stars. By Priscilla Adum. The dance trainer and choreographer who worked with Badia Masabni and her dancers.
• From Badia's at El Giza to Road El Farag: Backstage At The Summer Casinos. Gossip about what celebrity dancers do backstage. Translated by Priscilla Adum.
• Artists and Journalists at Badia's. Translated by Priscilla Adum. A review of the new show in 1938 Badia planned to present for her comeback to the theater.
• Three Hours at Badia Casino's Program. Magazine review of one of the shows presented at Badia's Casino. Translated by Priscilla Adum.
• Badia Masabni's Years as a Club Owner: A Timeline. From opening Sala Badia in 1926 through selling Casino Opera in 1950.

Interviews

• Badia Masabni Segment of 1928 Interview with Naguib el-Rihani.
• Badia Masabni and Beba Ezz el-Din Reveal How They Learned to Dance. 1930's.
• Badia Masabni Newspaper Interview December 3, 1938
• Badia Masabni Interviewed on Television by Layla Rostum in 1966

Flyers and Ads

• 1920's
  • 1926 Ad for Grand Opening of Sala Badia
  • 1927 Ad for Musicians at Sala Badia.
  • 1928 Ad for Opening of Badia's Alexandria Summer Club
  • 1928 Ad for Closing of Badia's Alexandria Summer Club
  • 1928 Ad for Badia's Show at Sala Badia in Cairo
• 1930's
  • 1930 Ad for Grand Opening of Badia Masabni's New Club in Giza City
  • 1931 Ad for Grand Re-Opening of Badia Masabni's Remodeled Club in Giza City
  • 1932 Ad for a Show at Casino Badia on Emad el-Din Street. Promotes plays, monologues, sketches, and songs.
  • 1933 Ad for a Show at Badia Masabni's Summer Club. Includes a female impersonator on the roster.
  • 1934 Ad for a Show at Badia Masabni's Club on Emad el-Din Street. Translated by Priscilla Adum. Also includes background information about the Muslim religious festival Eid al-Adha which coincided with this play titled Kharouf el Eid.
  • 1935 Ad for Badia Masabni's Show at the Alhambra Theater.
  • 1935 Ad Announcing Badia's Retirement from the Stage. To pursue a career in cinema.
  • 1935 Ad for a Show at Badia Masabni's Club Featuring a Cast of 60 People.
  • 1935 Advertisement for Badia Masabni's Sala. Promotes a show at Sala Badia with the comedy "Battle of Dogs, Cats, and Rats", a Pharaonic musical segment, Spanish dance with castanets, and more.
  • 1935 Ad Promoting Badia Masabni's Summer Casino at English Bridge in Giza. Includes information about English Bridge and Badia's club there. Mentions the act Famous Women as being part of the program.
  • 1935 Photo Showing Badia Masabni's Cast for the Show Famous Women. Features Badia Masabni dressed as Queen Shagaret el Dor.
  • 1936 Ad for the Premiere of Badia Masabni's Movie: Queen of Theaters.
  • 1936 Publicity Flyer for Badia Masabni's Film: Queen of Theaters
  • 1937 Ad Announcing Grand Opening of Badia Masabni's Summer Casino in Giza
  • 1938 Ad Promoting a Comedy Called Chokehold at Badia Masabni's Summer Club.
  • 1938 Newspaper Ad for Grand Opening of Badia Masabni's New Club at Majestic Theater. Appeared in Al Ahram Newspaper on December 8, 1938.
  • 1939 Rival Ads for Badia Masabni's & Beba Ezz el-Din's Clubs. October 5, 1939.
  • 1939 Rival Ads Promoting Badia's Club and Beba Ezz El-Din's Club. Published on October 31, 1939.
  • 1930's Ad for a Show at Sala Badia. Songs, monologues, and Tunisian dancing.
  • 1930's Ad Showing the Cast Members for Shows at Badia Masabni's Summer Casino. Probably from early 1930's. Translated by Priscilla Adum.
  • 1930's Ad Promoting a Show at Badia Masabni's Summer Club known as Badia's Garden in Giza. Translated by Priscilla Adum. The cast included heavenly creatures from Marrakech!
• 1940's
  • 1940 Ad Promoting Shows at Badia's Summer Casino in Giza City
  • 1940 Ad Announcing Grand Opening of Casino Opera. Shows November 9 as the opening date.
  • 1940 Ad Announcing Grand Opening of Casino Opera. Shows November 14 as the opening date.
  • 1940 Ad for New Show at Badia Masabni's Casino Opera
  • 1940's Ad for New Show Featuring Badia Masabni's and Beba Ezz El-Din's Dance Company

Priscilla is a dancer of Lebanese heritage who enjoys researching the Golden Era of Egyptian dance. She owns a collection of more than one hundred classic black and white Egyptian films which is continually expanding.

Priscilla has also gathered a large library of dance related articles and clippings from Middle Eastern magazines and newspapers, many of which she has translated from the original Arabic to both English and Spanish.

Priscilla currently resides in Central America where she is a dance instructor.