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

Fuad I of Egypt Fuad I ( ''Fu’ād al-Awwal''; 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 Sultan in 1917, succeeding his elder brother Hu ...

and Nazli Sabri, and the youngest sister of Farouk I.

Early life

Fathia was born on 17 December 1930 at the Koubbeh Palace, El-Quba,

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. Her father, Fuad I died when she was five years old. She was raised mostly close to her mother, Nazli, and her sister 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, 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, California, United States on 25 April 1950 in a civil ceremony and 24 May 1950 in a Muslim ceremony by an Imam. Fathia converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. 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 received the "Bekdom" or held the title "Fuad Bek Sadek". 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) Fathia and her mother settled in the United States for the rest of their lives, having money troubles that eventually led to living in a small flat in California. Later in 1973, Fathia 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 es-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 Oc ...

to retrieve their Egyptian passports, which he granted. However, a few days before returning to Egypt, Fathia was killed.

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. Not wanting her to leave, he shot her in the head 6 times with his revolver before attempting to take his own life. Ghali survived and was promptly investigated. Some reports say he only served a year in prison, due to poor health. He died in 1987.

Ancestry

References

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