Thoraya Abdel Wahab

A champion athlete, television presenter from the pioneer generation, and film actress, she was born in Ismailia Governorate in 1943. She practiced swimming, rowing, and cycling, and won national championships in the late fifties and early sixties. She came to Cairo and joined the Faculty of Physical Education at Cairo University and graduated in 1963 to take the exams for broadcasters on Egyptian television. She passed the exams, worked as a broadcast announcer, and then presented many successful programs such as TV Magazine, Games and Entertainment, Sports for All, World of Sports, Play with Us, and Amateurs. In 1963, she married journalist Mamdouh Zaher, head of the television news sector and director of newspaper censorship, and gave birth to her two sons, Ahmed and Khaled. When her husband, Mamdouh Zaher, died, she married businessman Hanafi Farag and gave birth to her daughter, Maryam. Egyptian cinema attracted her, so she performed in some cinematic roles, most notably the film The Convergence in 1977. She had a long history in television commercials, where she did voiceovers, in addition to appearing in some advertisements. She was forced to leave her work on television because of her husband's political stance after President Sadat took power. I went out in the Correction Revolution on May 15, 1971. I worked in the Ministry of Youth, and after a short period I left government work and went to private work, where I established a ready-made clothing factory, then worked in real estate trading.