Show Notes

Episode 5 - The Women of Alexandria

Raya and Sakina have become legends in Egypt, infamous for being the sisters who murdered the sex workers of Alexandria and burying them underneath their homes. Parents will no longer give their children the names “Raya” and “Sakina,” fearing they are cursed. Egyptians tell misbehaving children that the sisters will come for them if they don’t do as they’re told. But do the sisters deserve this infamy? And if they don’t, then who were the real serial killers of Alexandria in 1920?

Sources:

Al-Hefnawy, Marwa. “Stinging Sisters.” Arab News. Saudi Research & Publishing Company, May 31, 2007. https://www.arabnews.com/node/299048. 

Awad, Mohamed. “The Metamorphosis of Mansheyah.” Edited by Hannah Davis Taieb and Kenneth Brown. Alexandria in Egypt, 1996. 

Bizawe, Eyal Sagui. “Sisters Without Mercy: Behind Egypt's Most Infamous Murder Case.” Haaretz. Haaretz Daily Newspaper, December 27, 2014. https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-sisters-without-mercy-1.5352259. 

Chiti, Elena. “Building a National Case in Interwar Egypt: Raya and Sakina's Crimes through the Pages of Al-Ahrām (Fall 1920).” History Compass, February 15, 2020. 

Esquire Staff. “New Series 'The Alexandria Killings' to Profile Egypt’s Most Notorious Serial Killers.” Esquire Middle East. ITP Media Group, April 20, 2021. https://www.esquireme.com/content/52037-egypts-most-notorious-serial-killers-raya-and-sakina-tv-series-the-alexandria-killings. 

Mahmoud, Rasha. “Alexandria’s France Street Still Living in Its Golden Age.” Al-Monitor. Al-Monitor, November 2, 2017. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2017/11/france-st-reflects-alexandias-rich-heritage.htm. 

Moger, Robin. “An Excerpt from the Men of Raya and Sakina.” Jadaliyya. Jadaliyya, May 4, 2020. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41064. 

Mustafa, Marie. “'Raya We Sakina Min Tani' Launches on Aug. 13 in Alexandria.” Egypt Today, August 14, 2019. https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/73863/Raya-we-Sakina-min-tani-launches-on-Aug-13-in. 

Rizk, Yunan Labib. “The Women Killers.” Al-Ahram Weekly, no. 434 (June 1999). 

St. Estephe. “Raya & Sekina Aly Hammam, Egyptian Serial Killing Sisters - 1920.” Unknown Gender History, February 8, 2015. https://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2011/09/raya-sakina-ablel-al-egyptian-serial.html. 

Takla, Nefertiti Mary. “Murder in Alexandria: The Gender, Sexual and Class Politics of Criminality in Egypt, 1914 - 1921,” 2016. 

“THE FITUWA: SALAH EISSA’S RAYA AND SAKINA IN ROBIN MOGER’S TRANSLATION.” The Sultan's Seal, February 3, 2018. https://sultansseal.com/2018/02/03/the-fituwa-salah-eissas-raya-and-sakina-in-robin-mogers-translation/. 

Music: Dellasera by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com