2022/05/24
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The dancer Shafiqa the Coptic is a woman who has achieved everything in life, fame, glory and immense wealth. She lived a life like that of kings and princes, but all this went in the blink of an eye and became scattered for nothing.
We have all seen the movie that bears her name and starring the great artist Hind Rostom, but the real story is different, a story that carries many meanings, cues and lessons.
Shafiqa was born in 1851 in Shubra, and Shafiqa was committed to visiting Saint Therese Church in Shubra neighborhood, and the residents and passers-by on Nakhla Street were waiting for the beautiful girl to pass by.
Amazed at her beauty. In 1871, it was by chance that played a major role in the entry of Shafiqa the Coptic into the field of dancing, one day and in one of the weddings.
The ancient Coptic, there was a dancer called “Shawq”, and she was the most famous at that time, and she was the only one who was allowed to dance in the parties of large families and in the parties of Khedive Ismail, and she even danced at the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal.
After Shawq performed her dance, and during the break, some girls danced for the invited guests, as is customary in Egyptian weddings, and a beautiful brunette girl appeared,
She was slim and attracted attention to her and entered hearts with her dance. This girl was Shafiqa, and due to Shawq’s admiration for her dance, she asked Shafiqa to dance with her.
The Shafiqa family’s response was only to rebuke it, as they are a religious and conservative family. Shafiqa left the place with her family, and she received looks of “longing”, which means that it is not the end!! Shafiqa considered herself very lucky that a famous dancer like
“Shawq” liked her, and indeed, Shafiqa went to Shawq’s house and learned the first principles of dance without her family’s knowledge. She used to leave the house on the pretext of going to church to pray, and after completing the lessons, she left her home and settled with Shawq.
After six months, her family learned of her whereabouts and sent a priest to advise her to return to her family, but she refused the order, which called on her family to disavow her, so it was only for her to enclose her name in Coptic, after her religion.
After six months, Shawq passed away and the arena was emptied for Shafiqa, who created and spread her fame and invented some new dances. In a very short period of time, Shafiqa rose to the throne of dance and art, and her name became resounding everywhere, and after her family was picking her up, she became proud of her!!
He sought after Shafiqa the owners of the cabarets in order to work with them and the men gathered around her and every man who admired her put a huge fortune under her feet, and when Shafiqa was standing on the stage to dance,
She was scattered under her feet, greeting her by the admirers and lovers, of gold pounds, but she did not extend her hand to any of them, but used three servants to collect these pounds and present them to her.
After the dance performance ended, and it was said that one of them kept some of these pounds for himself, he was able in a short period of time to acquire a fortune with which he bought real estate in the Shubra neighborhood and retired from the service.
Shafiqa traveled to France and achieved great success there. She won an award from one of the international exhibitions there. The Egyptian press called her the world dancer and the queen of belly dancing. She received shows from Italy, Spain, Tunisia and Algeria to celebrate celebrations and weddings there.
Shafiqa reached a point of fame and wealth that made her live like princes and became the first woman in Egypt to own “carts” and many loved her and fans flocked to her, as there were those who spent all their money on them without getting anything in return, and there were those who opened champagne bottles to water their horses! !.
Although the world gave Shafiqa everything, but motherhood was forbidden, fate prevented that, so she decided to adopt a child named “Zaki” and gave him all the feelings of motherhood and tenderness, but his upbringing was in an atmosphere of alcohol, dancing and money without account.
She made him a corrupt person and addicted to alcohol and drugs. In the end, Shafiqa decided to marry him, perhaps his condition would be rectified. She held a huge and dazzling wedding for him, people talked about, but his condition worsened due to addiction and he died after a while of his marriage, so Shafiqa suffered great pain for him.
Shafiqa advanced in age, and after all this success and fame that she reached, her youth and beauty began to wither and go away, as time went by, and the queue of fans began to decrease, and so did fame, and she began to drink alcohol, take drugs and waste money.
And she also started buying corrupt young men with money to gather around her to feel love until a young man married her for her money, and after he took everything she had, he left her and went. And here Shafiqa began begging in the streets of Cairo asking for charity, and one night she met Sayed Darwish and said to him:
“I don’t want money, I myself feed the fish.” At that time, Sayed Darwish cried for her and for how she was after wealth, glory and fame. .