Milia Dayan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Emilia Dayan Egypt |
Milia Dayan (fl. 1870), was an Egyptian stage actress. She and her sister were the first two professional female actors in Egypt and in the Arab world. [1]
Milia Dayan was born as Emilia Dayan in a poor Jewish family in Egypt.
In 1870, the modern theater was founded in Egypt with the foundation of the theater company of the theater pioneer Yaqub Sanu. The modern theater art, imported from the Western world, demanded female actors to play female roles. While Yaqub Sanu was able to acquire indigenous male actors, he experienced great difficulty to engage indigenous Egyptian female actors. In this time period, women in Egypt were normally segregated in harems and veiled in public, and it was not accepted for a Muslim woman to engage in acting. [2]
Yaqub Sanu was allowed to employ women to act on stage since it was seen as necessary, but he was forced to engage non-Muslim women. He was eventually able to employ two poor Jewish girls: Milia Dayan and her sister. Sanu instructed them to read and write and act, and they became the first two professional stage actresses in the Arab world when they made their stage debut. For a long time, the Dayan sisters remained the only actresses in the Arab world, and Sanu was forced to adjust the plays since he only had access to two women who had to play all women's roles in his productions.
Milia Dayan appeared to have attracted more success than her sister. She not only acted, but also performed as a singer. She accompanied the Sanu theater company on tours around both Egypt and as far to Syria. As such she played a pioneer role as the first actress in many of the places to which they toured.
The Dayan sisters are known as the first actresses in the Arab world alongside Miriam Samat, Warda Milan, Mathilde Nagga and the sisters Ibriz Estati and Almaz Estati, all of whom were non-Muslim women. [2]