Women in Egyptian Cinema: Shifting Narratives, Roles and Aesthetics
| Dates: | 5 March 2026 |
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| Times: | 17:00 - 18:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Adults, Current University students, General public |
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Dr Dalia S Mostafa, University of Edinburgh/University of Manchester
Host: Dr Ruth Abou Rached
In this seminar, I aim to provide a historical context for the influential role that women played in the making of Egyptian cinema since the early decades of the 20th century. Egypt has the largest and oldest cinema industry in the Arab world, an industry that came to be known as “Hollywood on the Nile”. From its early beginnings, women embraced this new artistic sphere in Egypt, as film producers, directors, actresses, singers and dancers. The first Egyptian feature film in the silent period, Layla, was produced by ‘Aziza Amir in 1927, who also played the leading role. Cairo and Alexandria became hubs for the fledgling cinema industry that soon became part of world cinema.
My presentation will trace narratives and aesthetics during the early period, moving on to the post- 1952 revolution era and the ongoing transformations in cinema and women’s involvement. I give contexts to how the narratives and aesthetics by female cineastes shifted and evolved, closely intertwined with decisive political and economic events in the country. Reflecting critically on this crucial history of the cinematic genre in Egypt, I will provide concluding remarks on women’s presence in Egyptian cinema today.
BIO: Dr Dalia Said Mostafa teaches in the department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Edinburgh University. She was Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar), and prior to that a Senior Lecturer in Arab Cultural Studies at the University of Manchester. Herrecent monographs are The Egyptian Military in Popular Culture: Context and Critique (2017), and the co-author of The Egyptian Coffeehouse: Culture, Politics and Urban Space (2020). Her latest publication in the Arab Studies Journal is "Crime and Dystopia in Three Egyptian Novels: Dissecting Cityscapes and the Body as a Terrain for Political Critique." (2025).
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A112
Samuel Alexander Building
Manchester
