Princess Fathia (; 17 December 1930 – 10 December 1976) was the youngest daughter of

Fuad I of Egypt Fuad I ( ar, فؤاد الأول ''Fu’ād al-Awwal''; tr, I. Fuad or ; 26 March 1868 – 28 April 1936) was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and the Sudan. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sulta ...

and

Nazli Sabri Nazli Sabri ( ar, نازلي صبري; 25 June 1894 – 29 May 1978) was the first queen consort in the Kingdom of Egypt from 1919 to 1936. She was the second wife of Fuad I, King of Egypt. Early life Nazli was born on 25 June 1894 into a fam ...

, and so the youngest sister of

Farouk I 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

Fathia was born on 17 December 1930 at the

Koubbeh Palace Koubbeh Palace, (Arabic ) is one of the various Egyptian palaces which serve as the country's official guest house for visiting dignitaries. The palace was most likely originally built in the mid-19th century and sold to Khedive Ismail in 1866 ...

El-Quba Hadaek al-Qubbah (Qubbah Gardens, ) is a district in the Northern Area of Cairo, Egypt. History It used to be a palatial garden district in the 19th Century as was Shubra before it. The Koubbeh Palace, Qubbah Palace was built in the mid 19th Cen ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. She was of Turkish, Albanian, French and Circassian descent. Her

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

died when she was five years old. She was raised mostly close to her

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

and her sister Princess Faika of Egypt, Faika. In 1948, she travelled with her sister Faika and her mother to the United States for her mother needed to undergo a kidney surgery.

Later life

After her mother's successful surgery, Fathia settled in the United States. In 1949, her sister Faika married Fuad Sadek. In 1950, she herself married

Riyad Ghali Riyad Ghali (born Riyad Bishay Ghali; 11 February 191912 July 1987) was the husband of Fathia Ghali the youngest daughter of King Fuad I and Nazli Sabri. Marriage, divorce and death While in the United States, Riad Ghali married Princess Fathi ...

, their Royal Advisor, who was 11 years her senior, and was a Coptic Christian. Ghali converted to Islam to try and gain favor with King Farouk during the wedding She married at the Fairmont Hotel in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States on 25 April 1950 in a civil ceremony and 24 May 1950 in a Muslim ceremony by a Imam . King Farouk was shocked and humiliated by the scandal and sacrilege: in effect, he excommunicated both women, confiscating their extensive lands and banning them from Egypt forever. Faika went back to Egypt in 1951 to get back her title, and she did, and her husband Fuad Sadek got the "Bekdom" or held the title "Fuad Bek Sadek". Fathia and her mother settled in the United States for the rest of her life, having money troubles that eventually led to living in a small flat in California. Later in 1973, she divorced Riyad Ghali because of bad investments that made them lose almost everything they owned. Later, her mother's jewelry was sold for $1,500,000. Fathia also worked as a cleaning lady to pay her debt. Some time later, her mother sent a request to President

Anwar El-Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

to retrieve their Egyptian passports, which he granted. However, a few days before returning to Egypt, Fathia was killed by her husband, as explained below.

Death

An unconfirmed story by an Egyptian journalist states that on 10 December 1976, the day she was returning to Egypt, she went to her ex-husband's house with the excuse of "taking Ghali's mother's (Galila) clothes, where she found Ghali drunk. In not wanting her to leave, he shot her in the head 6 times with his revolver before attempting to take his own life. It is uncertain whether this is true, but ultimately, Ghali survived and was promptly investigated. Some reports say he only served a year in prison, due to poor health. He died in 1987 (reference photo of his tomb).

Issue

Fathia and Riad Ghali had three children, two sons and a daughter: * Rafik (born 29 November 1952) * Rayed (born 20 May 1954) * Ranya (born 21 April 1956)

Titles

* Her Royal Highness, Princess Fathia Fuad of Egypt (1930–1950). * Mrs. Fathia Ghali (1950–1973). * Miss Fathia Fuad (1973–1976).

Honours

EGY - Order of the Virtues - Supreme and first classes

Decoration of Al Kemal in brilliants.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghali, Fathia 20th-century Egyptian women 1930 births 1976 deaths Converts to Roman Catholicism from Islam Daughters of kings Deaths by firearm in California Egyptian emigrants to the United States Egyptian former Muslims Egyptian people of Albanian descent Egyptian people of Circassian descent Egyptian people of French descent Egyptian people of Greek descent Egyptian people of Turkish descent Egyptian Roman Catholics Egyptian royalty Muhammad Ali dynasty Murdered royalty Violence against women in the United States