Fathia Ghali

Fathia Ghali (neé(Persian: شاهدخت فتحية ‎, Arabic: فتحية بنت فؤاد الأول‎) (5 Fathia Ibrahim; 17 December 1930 – 10 December 1976) was the youngest daughter of Fuad I of Egypt and Nazli Sabri, and so the youngest sister of Farouk I.

Early life

Fathia was born on 17 December 1930 at the Kubba Palace, Cairo.^[1] She was of Turkish, Albanian, French, and Circassian descent. Her father died when she was six years old. She was raised mostly close to her mother 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 surgery succeeded, Fathia settled in the United States for a long time, and in 1949, her sister Faika married Fuad Sadek. After a while and in 1950, she herself married Riyad Ghali, their Royal Advisor, who was 11 years her senior, and was a Christian. In 1950, Nazli and Fathia both converted from Islam to Catholicism. She married in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, California, USA on 25 April 1950 (civ) and 11 May 1950 (rel).^[2] King Farouk was shocked and humiliated by the scandal and sacrilege, Farouk, in effect, excommunicated the two 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 many troubles that made her reach 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 to retrieve their Egyptian passports, which he granted. However, some days before them two going back to Egypt, Fathia was killed by her husband, as explained below.

Death

On 10 December 1976, the day she was returning to Egypt, she went to her ex-husband's house by the excuse of "taking Ghali's mother's (Galila) clothes". When she went, she found Ghali drunk, and not wanting her to leave, and using his revolver, he shot her with 6 shots in her head. Then, Ghali tried to kill himself but he survived. He went to prison. Some reports say he only served a year in prison, due to ill health.