Safia ElEmary

An Egyptian actress, she was born in the city of Mahalla al-Kubra in the Gharbiyya Governorate District (Government of the Emirates) on January 20, 1949, with the name Safia Mustafa Muhammad al-Omari, to a family consisting of 6 sisters. She studied ballet dancing and playing the violin in her childhood, graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at Alexandria University, and mastered the Russian language to work as a translator in international conferences. She also worked at the beginning of her working life as a newspaper reporter, due to the nature of her presence in international conferences. She began her artistic life by experimenting with ballet dancing, playing the violin, and television production, in 1970, until she met the artist Jalal Issa, and married him after a strong love story. She gave birth to her parents, Walid and Ahmed, and she succeeded in one of the television competitions to work as a program presenter. After her media debut, the press published many of her photographs, which attracted the attention of producer and director Ramses Naguib, so he assigned her the role of the unfaithful wife, Farida, in the film “Affection Above Smiling Lips.” 1974, and her husband, Jalal Issa, opposed her film appearance, but she rebelled against him and accepted the work, which made him marry another woman and have children with her. She separated from him and decided to devote herself to her artistic work and take care of her two children. She did not marry after her separation, and the owner of the boldest eyes in Egyptian cinema began her artistic career, while her husband, Jalal Issa, disappeared. Safia Al-Omari performed many successful cinematic roles, after refusing Ramses Naguib’s monopoly. For her efforts, she played the role of Souad in the movie Never Will I Return 1975, Safaa in the movie No Time for Tears 1976, Dr. Laila in the movie Torment is a Woman 1977, Mervat in the movie Afraid of Something 1979, then she played the role of Suzan, the wife of the Dean of Literature Taha Hussein in the television series Al-Ayyam 1979, to gain widespread fame that made her distinctive among the girls of her generation, and she became closer to the audience as Anhar Al-Sayyid Metwally in the movie At the Wazir’s Gate. 1982 and the role of Aziza in the movie “I Am the One Who Killed Al-Hanash” in 1984 with the most popular star, Adel Imam. Then it was the most famous role in her artistic life, and the one for which she was nicknamed, which was the role of Nazik Hanem Al-Salhadar in Osama Anwar Okasha’s masterpiece, the television series Layali Al-Helmeya (1987-1995), with its five parts. Safiya Al-Omari was chosen to be a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations in 1997, but she resigned from her position in 2006 in protest against the Lebanese war. When the Film Authority nominated her to participate in the Tashkent Festival with her first film, “Torment on Smiling Lips,” Safia Al-Omari was the star of the festival, and at the forefront of the world’s stars, and her mastery of the Russian language was a reason for her to be the shining star of the festival. She was chosen as the United Nations Ambassador to the Middle East in 1997. Safiya Al-Omari suffered from seventh nerve disease, which led her to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy, but something went wrong in the treatment, leaving a visible mark on a large part of her face. Actress Safia Al-Omari participated in the film Al-Migrant 1994 in the list of the 100 best films in the memory of Egyptian cinema, according to a critics’ poll in 1996. She was honored for her entire work at the Cairo Drama Festival in its first session, September 2022.