Introduction: Why Layla Murad?
1. The Schoolgirl: Making Layla Murad
2. The Country Girl: Branding Layla Murad
3. Adam and Eve: Interfaith Family, Fame, and Gossip
4. The Blow of Fate: The Politics of Boycotting Israel
5. The Unknown Lover: Layla Murad and the Free Officer
6. The Starling of the Valley: Remembering Layla Murad
Conclusion: Can an Egyptian Be a Single Mother and a Jew?
Hanan Hammad is Associate Professor and Director of Middle East Studies at Texas Christian University. She is the author of Industrial Sexuality: Gender, Urbanization, and Social Transformation in Egypt (2016), which won prizes from the National Women's Studies Association, the Association for Middle East Women's Studies, and the Arab American Book Awards.
"A fascinating and fun read, Unknown Past carefully documents
Layla's story, fills voids, and makes important interventions into
debates on her life and legacy. Just as Layla's life was bigger
than the screen, this book goes beyond the history of cinema to
illuminate questions about religion, society, gender, and
politics."—Beth Baron, The Graduate Center and City College, City
University of New York, author of The Orphan Scandal
"Bringing together biography and history, Unknown Past examines
transformations in midcentury Egypt through the life of the hugely
popular Layla Murad. Unraveling rumors and debunking myths, Hanan
Hammad draws attention to the social pressures Murad faced as a
working woman, as a Jew, as a wife, and as a mother."—Deborah
Starr, Cornell University, author of Togo Mizrahi and the Making of
Egyptian Cinema
"Unknown Past is meticulously researched and vividly written. Hanan
Hammad unpacks, in a careful, clear-headed, and brave manner, all
the myths surrounding Egypt's beloved star Layla Murad, from her
career's entanglement in the Arab-Israel conflict to her premature
retirement. An essential read."—Ted Swedenburg, University of
Arkansas, editor of Palestine, Israel, and the Politics of Popular
Culture
"Unknown Past: Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star of Egypt is a
descriptively compelling and detailed account of the life and work
of a culturally, artistically, and politically influential Egyptian
woman through modern Egypt's complicated and perilous times. A
consummate work of impeccable scholarship, no Egyptian Cinema or
20th Century Egyptian Biography collection would be complete or
comprehensive without the inclusion of a copy of Unknown Past."
-Julie Summers, Reviewer's Bookwatch
"This is the kind of book any aspiring scholar should want to write
at least once during their career: Hammad both lucidly engages
relevant academic literature and tells a fascinating story for
nonspecialist readers new to one of the dizzying number of
disciplines into which she intervenes."—Abe Silberstein,
Cineaste
"[Unknown Past is] a story not only about religion and ethnicity in
the Arab world, but also one about how being female can amplify the
effects of being a minority in a society that is not as 'modern' as
it prides itself on being."—Lauren Hakimi, The Forward
"This engaging text sheds new light on old questions and provides
greater depth to this Golden Age star.... Ultimately, readers see
Murad as a complex, multidimensional individual—acelebrity, wife,
lover, mother, and businesswoman. Recommended."—M. L. Russell,
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