'Raya we Sakina min tani' launches on Aug. 13 in Alexandria

CAIRO - 14 August 2019: The theatrical show "Raya we Sakina Min Tani" (Raya and Sakina again) launched on Aug. 13 on Teatro of the Nile theater in Alexandria.

Actress Badria Tolba expressed her happiness for the success of the play, assuring the press that this success is a great motivation to perform more elaborate performances.

“Raya We Sakina Min Tany” is starring Badria Tolba, Entisar, Hamdi al-Wazir, and Mohamed Farouk; it is written by Mustafa Salem and directed by Hossam el-Din Salah.

Raya and Sakina were two Egyptian serial killers, known as Egypt's most infamous serial killers. They both were siblings. In the early 1900s, the two women, their husbands, and two other men began a killing spree targeting women in the Labban neighborhood of Alexandria.

The law enforcers were startled by increasing reports of missing women. Women started disappearing mysteriously during that time. Sakina was questioned several times because of the reports, but she managed to dodge suspicions regarding her involvement.

On the morning of December 11, 1920, a passerby discovered human remains on the side of the road; the body was damaged beyond recognition (except for its long hair) and was completely dismembered.

There was also a piece of black cloth and a striped black-and-white pair of socks near the body; however, these items did not help with the identification of the remains. In an unrelated incident, at about the same time in December, a man reported finding human remains beneath his floor while digging to fix a water pipe.

Those findings provided the only evidence regarding the murders in the Labban neighborhood.

After investigation, it was found that Raya and Sakina had been renting a home beside El Labban police department, where the bodies were buried.

Both vicious killers and their husbands were tried for murder. All four were convicted and were sentenced to death on May 16, 1921, putting an end to their gruesome crimes that not only shook Alexandria but Egypt as a whole.

Raya and Sakina became the first Egyptian women to be executed by the modern state of Egypt.

Inspired by the story of the killers, several books and works of art have been published, in addition to screenplays and theatrical shows.