5 - 11 July 2001
Issue No.541
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 5 - 11 July 2001 Issue No.541 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
LAST FAREWELL: Thousands of Egyptians gathered last Thursday to pay their last respects to much-loved actress Soad Hosni, 58, who fell from the balcony of a friend's apartment a week earlier while receiving medical treatment in London.
Beginning early Thursday morning, hundreds of anti-riot police surrounded the Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandessin, where Hosni's body was brought for prayers before burial. The body arrived in an ambulance accompanied by two armoured police vehicles that are usually used in confronting demonstrations. The strict security measures prevented many people from entering the mosque, and anti-riot police violently kept crowds away from the ambulance.
Contrary to the expectations of the thousands who gathered in front of the mosque shouting "Goodbye, Soad," police did not allow a funeral procession to take place. The body, draped in the Egyptian flag, was whisked into the ambulance and the motorcade drove swiftly away towards her family's burial plot in the 6 October City on the outskirts of Cairo.
Many of those who came to bid farewell to one of the most popular actresses in the history of Egyptian cinema ran after the ambulance for quite some distance. Others tried to forcibly stop the passing trucks and buses to take them to the cemetery.
Superstars Laila Elwi and Hussein Fahmy weep for Soad Hosni (left); and are joined in their sorrow by thousands of her fans
photos: Abdel-Hamid Eid
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