Legendary belly-dancer Najwa Foad has refused to accept an offer of one million Egyptian pounds presented to her by a production company as the price of her life’s secretes. The dancer stressed that her life is not for sale and anything that needs to be known about her has already been written in numerous newspapers and magazines.
Najwa revealed that previously an Arab satellite television channel had offered her a quarter of a million Egyptian pounds for her life’s secrets but she had strongly refused and so the channel increased the offer to one million on the condition that she gives specific details regarding her relationships with a number of important Arab political figures. Najwa simply stated that her life is an open book and she has nothing worth hiding that could be sold, reported the UAE based daily, AL Bayan.
Previously Najwa held extensive negotiations with the Egyptian broadcasting company over the production of a new film that portrays her life. It was revealed that the two sides debated heavily over the price Najwa was demanding, it being too high, and therefore no agreement was reached.
At first Najwa had requested over a million Egyptian pound and major alterations to be done to the script of the film. The dancer had also refused to have belly dancer Safwat to portray her in her early years and demanded that Dina be nominated for the first part of the film, where she will take over the second half.
Najwa stressed that Dina best fits for the role, and especially since she has returned to the entertainment world the chances of her acceptance run high. She added that she will resume talks with the production city in the hope of reaching an agreement, and if no agreement is reached she will look elsewhere to have her film produced.
Najwa had previously announced her intention to publish her life memoirs, but suddenly changed her mind saying that her life is full of personal secrets that she rather prefers to keep private and not reveal to anyone. Fouad is the only dancer of her generation who is still performing. The others fell along the way, retiring for fear of forgetting that they were over the hill, gaining or losing too much weight, succumbing to illness or the pressures of competition and the hard work and harder temptations that riddled their lives. Those who survived unscathed took refuge in the familiarity of domestic life. Although Fouad no longer dances in night-clubs, she still works in theatre and on television.
Nagwa was very popular in the 70's and 80's. Nagwa's fame started to rise in the sixties. By the seventies Nagwa was the top belly-dancer in the Arab world and beyond. She was on the cover of Egyptian magazines like the one of 1966 of "Al Kawakeb". Dancing has always been her priority above anything else. To be a dancer, a respected, famous dancer was her dream since she was about six.
She was born in 1943 in Alexandria under the name Awatef. Her father was Egyptian and her mother Palestinian. Her mother died a few months after Nagwa was born and her father remarried another Palestinian woman. -Albawaba.com
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
