The 1953 Codes: Rayyā and Sakīna on Screen (1953-2005)

This paper examines on-screen representations of female criminals. It focuses on Rayyā and Sakīna, two sisters who were arrested in Egypt in 1920 and executed in 1921. Since 1953, the sisters have inspired movies and TV series that have entrenched their myth in popular culture. Rayyā and Sakīna are at the core of narratives that bear moral imperatives on societal issues, such as the place of women in society and the relation of the nation to its margins. I will argue that, until a recent off-screen resignification, Rayyā and Sakīna have not been deeply resignified in Egyptian movies. Instead, they have been represented as natural-born killers, in line with the first Rayyā wa-Sakīna movie of 1953. What I call “the 1953 codes” – the markers that make the two characters recognizable – persist in subsequent works up until 2005.