Laila Mourad

Biography

Leila Mourad or Layla Morad (Arabic: ليلى مراد; February 17, 1918 – November 21, 1995) was an Egyptian singer and actress, and one of the most prominent superstars in Egypt and the entire Arab world in her era. Born Lilian Zaki Ibrahim Mourad in the El Daher District in Cairo, she later changed her name to Leila Mourad as a stage name. Leila married three times and divorced three times. She died in 1995.

Life

Leila Mourad was born on February 17, 1918, to Jewish parents of Polish descent on her mother’s side and of Syrian descent on her father’s side, Zaki Mourad and Gamilah Ibrahim Roushou, the daughter of Ibrahim Roushou, a local concert contractor in the early 20th century who regularly booked Zaki Mourad to sing at concerts and wedding parties. Her father was a respected singer, musician, and religious Jewish cantor (Hazzan). One of her brothers, Mounir Mourad, was an actor and composer.
She made her first stage appearance, aged nine, at the Saalat Badi'a, one of Cairo's most successful Music Halls. The theatre had been founded in 1926 by the actress and dancer Badia Masabni, who became Mourad's patron. Her first film appearance, aged fifteen, was in the 1932 " Al-Dahaaya " (The Victims) which had originally been made as a silent film. Her song, The Day of Departure, was added as part of the transformation of the production into a "talkie".
She was trained by her father and Dawood Hosni, who was also Jewish. Hosni had composed the first operetta in the Arabic language, and he composed two songs for Leila: Hairana Leh Bein El-Eloub (Why can't you choose from among lovers), and Howa el dala'a ya'ani khessam (Does daliance mean avoiding me?). Further success came when the prominent Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab heard her singing and gave her a role in his film Yahia el Hob (Viva Love!) in 1938. In the six years following the success of Yahia el Hob she made five best selling films with director Togo Mizrahi, becoming Egypt's top actress. In 1945 she made Layla Bint al-Fuqara ("Layla, daughter of the poor") directed by Anwar Wagdi whom she married shortly after. She went on to make a further 20 films of which the most outstanding is Ghazel el-Banat ("The Flirtation of Girls"), also directed and co-starring Wagdi. It also featured Nagib al-Rihani and Abdel Wahab in their last appearances on film.

In 1953, she was selected, over Umm Kulthum, as the official singer of the Egyptian revolution. Shortly thereafter, a rumor that Mourad had visited Israel, where she had family, and donated money to its military, raised suspicions of spying and caused some Arab radio stations to boycott her. She denied these allegations, insisting she is a Muslim . No proof was found that she had contributed money to Israel's military; the Egyptian government investigated and concluded that the charges against the singer were without foundation, but there was no denial that she may have sent money to other members of her family who had fled to Israel.
Her decision to retire, aged 38, came with the failure of her last film, Al Habib al Majhoul (The Unknown Lover), the banning of her song, With Unity, Order, and Work, praising the Free Officers 1952 revolution and the outbreak of the 1956 war. Despite the immense popularity of her films her singing career was over-shadowed by Um Kulthum who dominated Egypt's musical landscape and, in 1949, had become president of the Musicians' Union. In the early 1950s other singers became popular with younger audiences, such as Abdel al Halim Hafez, whose song Jesus (Al Massih) claimed that the Jews today are the same as those who persecuted Jesus.
Leila Mourad converted to Islam in 1946 a few months after marrying Egyptian actor Anwar Wagdy, over the objection of her father, as intermarriage with Muslims in Egypt means that the offspring are by law Muslims, regardless of the parents' wishes. In a television interview with famed Egyptian TV presenter Mona Alshazly, her son Zaki Fateen Abdul Wahab denied any rift between her and her family after her conversion and added that her conversion was her own decision without any pressure from her Muslim husband. It's notable that her only sister Sameeha (who married a Muslim Egyptian businessman and immigrated with him to the USA) and her brother Muneer Mourad, a famous musician in his own rght, have also converted to Islam.
Leila Mourad made a few brief reappearances during Ramadan in 1970, when she was scheduled to read Salah Jaheen's "Fawazeer Ramadan" (Ramadan' puzzles), a daily traditional radio program held during the Holy month of Ramadan. During that time, some Egyptian Jewish men between the ages of 17 and 60-65 were subjected to arrest, and were incarcerated in the prisons of Abu Zabal and Tura. Her brother, Ishak Mourad, was one of the Jewish prisoners. While families could occasionally visit the incarcerated Jews, neither she, her sister Sameeha nor her other brother Mounir Mourad were ever seen visiting Ishak.
Leila Mourad died in a Cairo hospital in 1995 and her funeral held at the Sayida Nefeesa mosque in Cairo.

Marriages

Leila Mourad married Anwar Wagdi (married 1945 – divorced 1953), over the objection of her father. She married him and divorced. Leila gave the reason for her divorce as the fact that she was not fully aware of the seriousness of Wagdi's illness, one that made him constantly irritable and difficult to live with. Yet, According to the book, "Laila Mourad, the Muslim Jewish star of Egypt", she accused him of being behind the accusations that she contributed to the Israeli military. According to the same book, she had an out of wedlock child from a relationship with a regime officer, who never acknowledged that he was the father . Then she married a film director Fatin Abdel Wahab in 1957 and she gave birth to their son Zaki Fatin Abdel Wahab, and finally divorced in 1969.

Legacy

The Ramadan television series " Ana Albi Dalili " (named after one of her songs), about the life of Leila Mourad, debuted in 2009. It is an Egyptian production headed by Syrian director Muhamad Zuhair Rajab. Jordanian actress Safa Sultan plays Leila Mourad. Egypt's Ahmed Falawkas portrays Anwar Wagdi. Ezzat Abou Aouf, an Egyptian actor, portrays Zaki Mourad and Egyptian actress Hala Fakher portrays Miriam, the aunt of Leila Mourad.