via egyptianstreets
(TW: This article discusses a pair of serial killers and the inhumane ways they used to murder people.)
The first two Egyptian women to be executed by the modern state of Egypt, Raya and Sakina, were two monstrous serial killers who murdered approximately seventeen women (with the help of their husbands, Hasaballah and Abdelaal, and a few family friends) and buried them under their house.
Because of their involvement in prostitution, the sisters already had a less-than-stellar reputation, so you can only imagine how they were seen later on. They started their string of homicides in 1919 and ended it a year later when a man installing a sewage system found the body of one of the victims.
So, who are they exactly?
You might have heard of Raya and Sakina from the play, Raya and Sakina, in which icons Shadia and Sohair El-Bably performed the titular roles. You might know them from the popular series starring Soamaya El-Khashab and Abla Kamel. However, no adaptation has ever been able to capture the terrors the pair brought upon society accurately—they’re simply the worst.
Before they left their village in Tanta for Alexandria’s El-Labban street, the sisters worked in several brothels. Once they moved to Alexandria, though, they started killing—not out of hatred, but simply for financial gain, as they (like many Egyptians at the time) had a lot of monetary problems.
via alarabiya
How they committed their crimes and how they were caught
Because the murderers primarily sought money, they befriended many wealthy women (especially those who displayed their wealth by wearing gold jewellery). Raya and Sakina would lure these women into their home, serve them a welcome drink, then get them drunk to the point where they were too intoxicated to move.
When the victim was drunk enough, the sisters and their husbands would strangle them, strip them of all their jewellery and fine clothes, then bury them under their tiles. Following this, they’d take all the valuable items and sell them. Luckily, one day a police officer felt like there was something fishy happening in the sisters’ home and decided to report them. Little did the man know, but he inadvertently saved the lives of the gang’s intended upcoming victims.
Following a popularised trial, most of Raya and Sakina’s victims’ were revealed, and the sisters, along with their husbands, were executed. However, Raya’s daughter, Bade’ea, was an important witness who helped bring her family to justice and was sent to an orphanage following their execution. Unfortunately, at only sixteen years old, Bade’ea died in a fire in the orphanage, though no one knows if the fire was intentional or not.
via egyptianstreets
