Farida of Egypt

Farida was hospitalized in September 1988 due to several health problems, including leukemia, pneumonia and hepatitis. On 2 October, she was put in intensive care and then, she lapsed into coma. She died of leukemia on 16 October 1988, aged 67, in Cairo.

Farida stayed in Egypt until 1964, living in Zamalek, a suburb on an island in the Nile. Later she settled in Lebanon where she saw her children after nearly ten years. In March 1965, when King Farouk died in Rome, she and her three daughters visited his body at the morgue. Then, she lived in Paris from 1968 to 1974 until she returned to Egypt in 1974, during the presidency of Anwar Al-Sadat. She remained unmarried after the divorce. During the late 1960s, she began painting. An artist, she had personal exhibitions in Europe and the United States. One of her exhibitions was in Cairo in May 1980.

After the birth of a third daughter, Farouk divorced her, on 19 November 1948. King Farouk cared for the first two daughters, while Farida cared for the youngest one after the divorce.

She married King Farouk on 20 January 1938 at Qubba Palace in Cairo, Egypt. She was renamed Farida as her reginal name in accordance with the royal naming convention initiated by King Fuad I that members of the royal family should bear the same initials. She wore a wedding gown designed by The House of Worth in Paris.

Farida and King Farouk first met on a royal trip to London in 1937. They were engaged in the summer of 1937.

Farida, born Safinaz Zulficar (5 September 1921 – 16 October 1988) (Arabic: صافيناز ذوالفقار), was the queen of Egypt for nearly eleven years as the first wife of King Farouk. She was the first queen of Egypt since antiquity to have left seclusion and played a public representational role, attending public functions and acting as honorary protector of charities, in accordance with the modern image the monarchy wished to represent at the time. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1948.

Queen Farida was born "Safinaz Zulficar" on 5 September 1921 to an Egyptian noble family in Janaklis, Alexandria. Her father, Youssef Zulficar Pasha, was a judge of Turkish origin; he was also vice president of the Alexandria Mixed Court of Appeals. Her mother, Zainab Sa'id, was a lady-in-waiting of Queen Nazli Sabri. On her mother's side, Farida's uncle was the artist and lawyer Mahmoud Sa'id, and her grandfather was the former prime minister of Egypt Muhammad Said Pasha, who was also of Turkish origin. Farida attended elementary and primary education at Notre Dame de Sion in Alexandria, a school run by French nuns.