Named after her: Who is Layali Eugenie’s Eugenie?

CAIRO – 9 June 2018: People have been mesmerized by the vintage atmosphere of the Ramadan drama/crime series “Layali Eugenie"; the clothes, the dialogs, the sceneries and even the cars. The series, which mostly occurs in one of Post Said’s streets named Eugenie, features Egypt’s life in the 1940s.

But the question that arose in the minds of the audience is: Who is Eugenie? Eugenie de Montijo was Empress of France and one of the most influential women of her age who helped in changing the world history.

She was born in Spain in May 1826 as Doña María Eugenia Ignacia, and she studied at the Convent of the Sacré Coeur in Paris. Afterwards, she travelled to UK to study the English language.

Eugenie gained much experience from her frequent travels, turning her from just a beautiful woman to a smart attractive lady with a character. Her attractiveness made French Emperor Napoleon III fall in love with her and marry her in 1853.

Eugenie succeeded to make French people both love and respect her. She played a vital role in the French society at a time when women roles’ in general were very minimal.


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She strongly supported female education and highlighted French women breakthroughs in literature, arts and education. She enhanced the bilateral relationship between England and France, as a result of her strong friendship with Queen Victoria.

She traveled to Egypt for the first time in 1869, representing Napoleon III in attending the opening of the Suez Canal; Eugenie was the guest of honor of the opening ceremony. Khedive Ismail praised Eugenie a lot during the ceremony and said, “My eyes fancy looking at you for lifetime.”

Such words drove a lot of historians to assume that Khedive Ismail was fond of Eugenie. There were rumors that said he used to love her when he was studying in France but her family opposed this love affair.

Eugenie visited Suez Canal and Port said cities after the ceremony and became fond of Port Said and its people so Khedive Ismail named one of Port Said popular streets after her. Despite that Eugenie street’s name has officially changed to “Safiyah Zaghloul,” people still call it “Eugenie Street”.

French people accused her of spying against France after the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, leading her to run away to England with her family where she settled till the end of her life. She died in July 1920 at the age of 94 and was buried in Hampshire beside her husband and son.

The main drama line of "Layali Eugenie" is the love story of Kariman and Farid, both of whom suffer. Kariman is struggling to get her daughter who was kidnapped by her husband back and Farid was forced to marry his late brother wife after his death to take care of his daughter.

Both fall in love with each other unintentionally to find in their love the main haven to ease from all these sufferings.

The letters written in "Layali Eugenie" gained a lot of admiration as soon as they were aired in one of the episodes, and fans of Amina Khalil loved her even more for her handwriting — or, at least, what they thought was hers.

Jewelry artist Yasmine Okasha announced that she was the one behind those beautiful handwritten letters in "Layali Eugenie" and that she is honored to have had a chance of working with such an amazing cast.

Star Amina Khalil stands beside Dhafer L’ Abdeen for the first time in a television show; he complimented working with her, describing her as a special actress.

The director of “Layali Eugenie” is Hany Khalifa and the scriptwriters are Engy Al Qasim and Sama AbdulKhalek.