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Wafaa El Saddik

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Wafaa El Saddik
Born1950 (age 73–74)
Nile Delta, Egypt
NationalityEgyptian
OccupationEgyptologist
Years active1977–2010
Known forDirector General of the Egyptian Museum (2004–2010)

Wafaa El Saddik (also El-Saddik, Arabic: وفاء الصديق; born 1950)[1] is an Egyptian Egyptologist, who from 2004 to 2010 was Director General of Cairo's Egyptian Museum. She was the first female director of the museum.

Personal life

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El Saddik was born in 1950 in the Nile Delta region of Egypt.[2] During the Suez Crisis, her family moved to Cairo.[2] She studied archaeology at Cairo University,[2] and later completed a PhD at the University of Vienna.[1][2]

El Saddik lived and worked in Cologne, Germany for 15 years,[3] during which time she met her husband, an Egyptian who works as a pharmacist.[1][2] They married in 1989, and have two children.[2] Her sister has been the State Secretary for the Ministry of Water.[1]

Career

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Originally El Saddik wished to become a journalist,[4] due to her interest in the Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War.[2] She became interested in archaeology after a trip to Thebes and the Aswan Dam.[4]

El Saddik has provided historical tours to world leaders including Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Carter, and Helmut Schmidt, as well as former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat.[1] At the age of 27, El Saddik went to work for the Tutankhamun exhibition in New Orleans, United States.[1]

From 2004 to 2010, El Saddik served as Director General of Cairo's Egyptian Museum.[2][4] She was the museum's first female director.[1][2][4] As director, El Saddik says that she received numerous politically motivated bids for funding for the museum.[1] El Saddik claimed that the museum created a daily income of around one million Egyptian pounds, but most of this money was transferred to the central government rather than being spent there.[3] In her book Protecting Pharaoh's Treasures, El Saddik said that she had predicted the Egyptian revolution of 2011, saying that she had believed it would be similar to the Tunisian Revolution.[4] In October 2010, she was chosen by then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to select artefacts for an exhibition in Rome. Her choices were later rejected.[4] She was forced into leaving her role at the museum in December 2010, as she had reached retirement age.[1]

During the 2011 Egyptian revolution, El Saddik witnessed the looting of the Egyptian Museum and Memphis Museum. She blamed the incident on police officers and guardians of the museum.[5][6] After the revolution, El Saddik expressed concern over the preservation of Egyptian historical artefacts.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Düker, Ronald (11 July 2013). "Weltkultur in Gefahr". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Ägyptens Schatzhüterin". Das Erste (in German). 29 May 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  3. ^ a b Koldehoff, Stefan (8 February 2011). "Mubarak bekam auch Zinsen von Tutanchamun". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kaaki, Lisa (4 December 2017). "Book Review: Dive into Egypt's glorious past". Arab News. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Plünderer zerstören Tutanchamun-Schätze". Der Spiegel (in German). 20 January 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  6. ^ Vartanian, Hrag (30 January 2011). "Former Egyptian Museum Dir Says Looting Inside Job, Memphis Mus Looted [UPDATE 40] Damaged Mummy ID'd, Sinai Antiquities Robbed". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
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