Ramadan Kareem
Before Scheherazade continues her tale and we discover what happened to Fatima, Halima, and Karima as they fall deeper into the web of their auntie Reema, it’s time for a little chitchat and some trivia about this season of One Thousand and One Nights, Egypt’s legendary radio show.
Our radio Scheherazade, Zouzou Nabil, portrayed Reema in the 1987 TV adaptation of the tale. However, the Reema we hear in this Ramadan’s radio broadcast is voiced by the renowned Egyptian actress Malak El-Gamal.
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| Colorized photo of Malak El-Gamal in 1966 "Tofahet Adam" |
I had recognized Reema’s voice in the radio version as familiar, yet I couldn’t pinpoint which veteran actress it belonged to—until I stumbled upon the answer by accident.
Born in Port Said in 1929, El-Gamal graduated from the Faculty of Arts, English Department, before enrolling at the Higher Institute of Acting Arts. She began her career in radio before transitioning to theater and eventually becoming a well-known film actress, specializing in complex roles, particularly as a villain.
She is remembered as the first Egyptian actress to portray a queer character on the silver screen in Salah Abu Seif’s El-Tareeq El-Masdood (1958), based on Ihsan Abdel Quddous' novel. The role was groundbreaking, even though the character was one of the antagonists the heroine encounters in her journey.
Her role in the 1962 film Black Candles was a classic performance, and she became a horror icon despite the film not being a horror movie.
Both Malak El-Gamal and Zouzou Nabil are among Egypt’s legendary villainesses and radio icons. If Nabil was our Radio Scheherazade, then El-Gamal was our talkative, bubbly Auntie Bamba—the beloved voice who guided Egyptian housewives for 12 years on the famous radio show To the Housewives, the oldest and longest-running program in Egyptian radio history. It has been on air for an astounding 71 years.
The showrunner and presenter of To the Housewives was Safia El-Mohandas, the wife of Mahmoud Shaaban—the creator and showrunner of the One Thousand and One Nights radio series. It is no surprise that both Shaaban and El-Mohandas are often referred to as the father and mother of Egyptian radio broadcasting.
Now, back to Malak El-Gamal—the Villainess Queen. It is said that she was the true muse of the famous Egyptian poet Ibrahim Nagi and the inspiration behind his iconic poem Al-Atlal (The Ruins), which was later immortalized in song by Umm Kulthum. Ironically, another theory suggests that the true muse was none other than Zouzou Hamdy El-Hakim, the undisputed queen of villainous roles in Egyptian cinema.
Malak El-Gamal’s career and life were tragically short. She passed away in 1982, following the deaths of her son and grandson. Yet, her legacy as one of Egyptian cinema’s most unforgettable villainesses of the 1960s and 1970s remains unparalleled.
Honestly, I felt it was a great opportunity to remember and shed some light on that fine actor.
Now, here is the 679th episode of our Arabian Nights Egyptian radio show—or the seventh night in this year’s tale, The Tale of Fatima, Halima, and Karima but first refresh your memory and remember what Reema did last night.
