The belly dancer, Zeinat Alawi, was able to secure a place among the most famous dancers in the fifties and sixties.
Zeinat Alawi was born in 1912 in Egypt to the father of a merchant of Moroccan origins. She studied at the Ansar Institute for Acting, which was founded by artist Zaki Tulaimat in Alexandria, but her father prevented her from completing her studies.
Zeinat decided to escape from Alexandria because of her father’s harsh treatment, to Cairo, where the lights and fame are said to have disobeyed her father. After her escape, he called her not to smell the scent of heaven.
Zeinat began her artistic life by working as a dancer in some artistic groups, such as the Badia Masabni troupe, and on al-Kassar. The late artist Najib al-Rihani watched her in Badia Masabni Casino, so he offered her to participate in a theatrical work and chose her artistic name Zeinat.
Theatrical performances rained down on the dancer Zeinat, then she began her artistic career in the world of cinema in 1951, and her first appearance was through the movie “Shabak Habibi”, following which many performances came to her.
Zeinat participated in regarding 40 films, most notably the films: “Adham Al-Sharqawi”, “The Wife 13”, “Raya and Sakina”, “Ismail Yassin in the Fleet”, and other films.
Zeinat Alawi retired from art in 1971, refused to marry and lived her life completely in isolation, and her death was tragic, as her body was discovered in her home in Cairo in 1988, three days following her death, at the age of 58 years.
