Princess Ferial (also spelled Farial, Feryal, ar, الأميرة فريال; 17 November 1938 – 29 November 2009) was the eldest child of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
's penultimate monarch,
King Farouk
Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1 ...
.
Early life
Ferial was born on 17 November 1938. At the time of her birth, King Farouk was eighteen years of age and his wife,
Farida of Egypt
Farida, born Safinaz Zulficar (5 September 1921 – 16 October 1988) (Arabic: صافيناز ذوالفقار), was the queen of Egypt for nearly eleven years as the first wife of King Farouk. She was the first queen of Egypt since antiquity to h ...
, was seventeen. Her birth was marked by nationwide celebrations which included the distribution of clothes and free breakfasts to thousands of poor. In addition, each of the 1,700 families of infants born on the same day were given , a generous gift at the time. Princess Ferial was later joined by two more sisters, Princesses
Fawzia and
Fadia. In search of an heir, King Farouk divorced Queen Farida in 1949 and married
Narriman Sadek
Narriman Sadek (Arabic: ناريمان صادق or Nariman Sadiq) (31 October 1933 – 16 February 2005) was the daughter of Hussain Fahmi Sadiq Bey, a high-ranking official in the Egyptian government, and his wife Asila Kamil. She was the s ...
. That marriage produced
Fuad II, Ferial's half-brother and last King of Egypt.
Life in exile
In 1952, the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
by the
Free Officers sent the
royal family into exile in Italy. Ferial left Egypt at the age of 13 on the royal yacht ''Mahroussa''.
The family's time in exile was spent in Naples, Capri and Rome. Ferial's correspondence with her mother Farida shows that she was very sad to leave Egypt and especially the people she knew and loved there.
Ferial was unable to return to Egypt while Nasser remained in power. Not until 1973, three years into Sadat's regime was she allowed access to the country and permitted an Egyptian passport. She would later spend her summers in Egypt with her daughter Yasmine visiting relatives.
Education
At the will of their father Farouk, Ferial and her sisters were educated privately, and then at Grand Verger Finishing School a boarding school in
Lutry
Lutry () is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the Lavaux-Oron, which includes the Lavaux region, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
History
Lutry is first mentioned in 908 as ''in Lustraco villam''. In 1124 it was mentioned as ...
, Switzerland. Their mother stayed in Egypt for 10 years after their exile eventually moving to Lebanon and then reuniting with them in Switzerland.
Family life
Ferial’s father Farouk was a very strict parent during their exile requiring the sisters to get permission for even trivial things such as hair cuts and wearing nail polish. Her father only gave her permission to teach at a sectarian school in Lausanne if she kept her identity a secret.
Ferial lived the majority of her life after her marriage outside of
Montreux
Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approxima ...
, where she taught typing and French literature. Later when she married, she and her husband operated a hotel in the area.
In 1966, Ferial married the
Swiss Jean-Pierre Perreten, at
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
, London. Perreten was the son of a Swiss hotelier and converted to Islam to make the marriage possible. He took on the name Samir Cheriff as part of his conversion.
They had one daughter, Yasmine Perreten-Shaarawi, in 1967. Ferial and Perreten divorced quickly after their daughter's birth. Ferial did not remarry. Perreten died in 1968.
In 2004 Yasmine married 'Ali Sha'arawi who is the grandson of
Huda Sha'arawi
Huda Sha'arawi or Hoda Sha'rawi ( ar, هدى شعراوي, ; 23 June 1879 – 12 December 1947) was a pioneering Egyptian feminist leader, suffragette, nationalist, and founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union.
Early life and marriage
Huda Sh ...
, an iconic Egyptian author and feminist.
After Ferial’s mother Queen Farida died in 1988, she and her two sisters were prompted to file a lawsuit against the Egyptian government over their ownership of a royal palace in the Nile Delta. The sisters believed that the land and property belonged to their mother and that with her death, they were the rightful owners of the property. However the Egyptian court ruled against them because their parents' divorce had voided their mother's claim to the land even before all royal property was taken over during the revolution.
Ferial spent the rest of her life out of the public eye taking care of her siblings. Her sister Fawzia suffered from multiple sclerosis and died in 2005. Her brother Fouad went through a great depression after his divorce from his wife Dominique-France Picard. While Ferial wasn't supportive of this marriage she supported her brother through his emotional struggles.
Death
Princess Ferial died in a hospital on 29 November 2009, aged 71, in
Montreux
Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approxima ...
, Switzerland, where she had been receiving treatment for
stomach cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2002.
Ferial was buried alongside her family in the Khedival mausoleum of Cairo's Rifa'i Mosque. This is where all members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty are buried.
Ancestors
Princess Ferial of Egypt is of Circassian (26/32), Turkish (3/32), French (2/32) and Albanian (1/32) descent.
References
External links
L'Egypte D'Antan... Egypt in Bygone Days by Max Karkegi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farial of Egypt
20th-century Egyptian women
21st-century Egyptian women
1938 births
2009 deaths
Deaths from cancer in Switzerland
Deaths from stomach cancer
Egyptian exiles
Egyptian expatriates in Italy
Egyptian emigrants to Italy
Egyptian emigrants to Switzerland
Egyptian people of Albanian descent
Egyptian people of French descent
Egyptian people of Circassian descent
Egyptian people of Turkish descent
Egyptian princesses
Farouk of Egypt
Muhammad Ali dynasty
People from Alexandria