Asmahan's secrets
Subtitle: woman, war, and song
By: by Sherifa Zuhur.
Publisher: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Austin
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
Subjects: Asmahān, 1912-1944; Singers -- Syria -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Description: "The great Arab singer Asmahan was the toast of Cairo song and cinema in the 1930s, as World War II approached. A Druze princess actually named Amal al-Atrash, she came from an important clan in the mountains of Syria, but broke free from her traditional family background, left her husband, and became a public performer, a role frowned upon for women of the time. She was also rumored to be an agent for the allied Forces during World War II.

Through the story of Asmahan and her musical career, the reader glimpses not only aspects of the cultural and political history of Egypt and Syria between the two world wars, but also the change in attitude in the Arab world toward women as public performers on stage."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-243) and index.