Mona Wasef, a Syrian actress, born in 1942, started her artistic activity in the theater in the early sixties, then moved to cinema and television. She became famous for her role in the movie “The Message”, which was considered her gateway to her fame in the Arab world, and for 60 years she has presented dozens of roles in more than 200 works of art.

Director Mustafa Al-Akkad traveled to Damascus specifically to watch her on the stage, so her most prominent cinematic work was the role of “Hind Bint Ataba” in the movie “The Message”, after which she achieved wide fame in the Arab world.

She was one of the artists who signed the statement "The Call of Milk", in which they demanded the entry of aid, humanitarian aid, medicine and infant formula to the besieged city of Daraa at the beginning of the Syrian revolution in March 2011. She was affected by campaigns of treason and placed on the regime's blacklist, but she denied her hostility to him and made the choice of silence and loyalty. home, as you say.

She was known as (Umm Joseph) in the series "Bab Al-Hara" and critics gave her several titles such as (Lady of the Stage, First Syrian Artist, Mother of Syrian Drama, Lady of the Syrian Screen, First Arab Artist, Old Diamond Necklace, Queen, Lady of Prestige, (Umm Jabal). ) in the series “Al-Haiba” and (Al-Sindiana Al-Shamiya), the most beloved to her heart, and (Umm Ammar) in relation to her only son, and until now her fans call her (Mama) and the younger generation as (Tita) (grandmother).

Mona Wasef (right), Mustafa Akkad and Greek actress Irene Pappas (communication sites)

Birth and upbringing

Mona Gelmiran Mustafa Wasef was born on February 1, 1942, in the Syrian capital, Damascus, to a Muslim father of Kurdish origins, and a Christian mother named Eileen Abboud Al-Azraq from the village of "Hab Namira" in the western countryside of Homs. She is the older sister of the two actresses, Haifa and Ghada Wasef.

She grew up in a popular environment on Al-Abed Street, "Harat Al-Sharaf", and she was seven years old when her parents separated.

After her parents divorced, her mother used to urge her to work during the summer holidays, so she sold “Girls for Girls” candy and worked as a saleswoman in a women’s clothing store at the age of 18. She was a model, and she participated twice in the Cotton Festival in Aleppo.

She married director Muhammad Shaheen, and she has a single son with him, Ammar Abdel Hamid, a writer and human rights activist who opposes the Syrian regime. She did not see him after that because she refused to leave Syria to live with him in America, even after her age reached eighty.

At this age, she still takes care of her health by swimming for 1.5 hours a day, as she used to do with her mother, and revealed that reading helped her stay as she is now, as it is her habit to read daily from 4 to 5 hours, especially novels, plays, and sometimes biographies of the greats. .

A literary ambition

Wasef did not expect to become an actress. Rather, she wished to be a writer or writer. She wrote some short stories, tried to tell her life story in a book, and used to give speeches at school celebrations.

She was jealous of the writers Ghada Al-Samman and Siham Turjuman, and she was obsessed that if she could not write like them, it would be better not to write at all.

It was known about Wasef - who owns a large library in her home - that she works to collect books in order to read them in the summer, and apologizes for the artistic works during that period, as culture is considered a weapon by which she protects her talent and strengthens her presence on stage and screen.

And she used to say, "In order to enjoy my life, with every new book I read, I live in new worlds, and I can summarize the sources of my culture as life, experiences, and books."

Study and formation

Wasef received her primary and preparatory education at the "Al-Fayhaa" school near her residential neighborhood, and said that her writings in the subject of expression and composition were very distinguished.

However, she suffered from difficulties in English, and mathematics caused her to fail twice in the Intermediate Certificate (Proficiency) exam, so she left her studies after obtaining the middle school certificate in 1956.

This was the only thing in which she disobeyed her mother, and she regretted it, according to her previous statements.

Wasef with actor Hussein Fahmy after his appointment as Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations Office in Damascus in 1999 (French)

Departure from the stage

In 1958, Wasef joined the ranks of the "Zenobia Band for Folklore" and worked as a dancer and in the choir. Then she took tests to select actresses for the military theater, so the director gave her the role and told her to read it. The scene was sad and a tear fell from her eye, and this tear was her passport to the first play Its title is "The Green Perfume" in 1960.

When she appeared for the first time on the stage, she did not succeed in performing her role, so the critics advised her to leave acting. Since then, she read extensively, and enthusiastically worked on educating herself, and returned to participate in a small role in a successful play entitled "12 O'Clock".

At that time, she met strong opposition from her parents, until she was severely punished by her mother when she discovered for the first time that she had become represented in the Arab Cultural Center in Damascus without her knowledge.

During that period, she married director Shaheen, who was the military director of Syrian TV in 1963, so she retired for more than a year, as the law prohibited Syrian officers from marrying an artist or a foreigner.

When her husband became working in the civil sector, she returned to the world of art in 1964.

She continued her career as an actress with the Dramatic Arts Ensemble, and she was assigned the role of (Duchess Bocia) in Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice", without pay, and from which she became the heroine of the "National Theater" for more than 20 years.

On stage, 28 plays were presented in classical Arabic, most of them international plays by major international and Arab playwrights, including “Al-Zeer Salem, Oedipus Malaka, Dead without Graves, Tartuffe, for all his truth, the Commissioner, Jonah and the Peacock.” times in 8 years.

In 1990, she ended her experience with the theater, which she said, "He made me," and decided to devote herself to cinema and television.

tv

The journey of the veteran Syrian actress with drama began with the launch of Syrian Arab TV during the period of unity with Egypt on July 23, 1960.

In 1964, she participated in the play "Birth of a Shadow" in 1961, then the series "Aswad Al-Abyad".

In 1966, her film career began with her first appearance as (Saada) in the movie “Sultana”.

In 1967, she participated in the series "Hammam Al-Hana" and played other roles in various films, and later said that they were films that she regretted, then she stopped acting for 4 years in the cinema.

She stated that she once presented a somewhat daring role, and people rejected it, and one of the critics at the time reprimanded her harshly, by saying, “You are a queen on the stage, why do you take off your crown with your hands?” And she realized that later in her artistic maturity.

The 1970s witnessed Wasef Al-Kawda’s breakthrough in drama, and she played the starring roles in the works “Alleyah Al-Mayla, Delilah and Al-Zaybak, Sari Abdullah Al-Badawi,” but the most important of which was the role of (Ammuna) in the series “Al-Jarh Al-Qadim” and the role of (Munira) in “Asaad Al-Warraq” in Al-Abyad. Al-Aswad, or what was called Al-Sabaa TV (seven episodes only), is one of the most famous Syrian dramas and the most followed in its old and new versions (thirty episodes).

And through her career spanning 6 consecutive decades, she presented more than 200 works between cinema and television, and said, "TV moved me to the Arab world and achieved more spread for me."

Wasef rejected the roles of "guest of honor" and liked the roles in which she slapped other actors, but she did not welcome a role in which she was slapped.

Syrian TV was one of the first stations in her artistic life, and then Jordanian TV, which contributed to its spread. In the third stage, she worked in Dubai and participated in 17 series, then moved to her fourth station in Lebanon.

radio

On the radio, she presented "Damascus, O Smile of Sorrow, My Soul is My Life, The Island of Fun, I and Fayrouz, and Time is Long." In her credits, she has dozens of radio nights and poetry programs, and she used to present a weekly program called "Mona Wasef and the Short Story."

Wasef was not afraid that throughout her artistic career she presented unsuccessful works, but she is not ashamed of them because every failure taught her a new lesson, as she says.

Icon of a strong woman

Wasef stood in front of the cameras of many film directors in her country, such as Nabil Al-Maleh, Ghassan Shmit, Muhammad Shaheen, and Qais Al-Zubaidi, and she performed the character of the mother in more than 50 roles from an early age, and said, "I am the most actress who played the role of the mother and for the majority of the actors," until she was called (the mother of all). .

Wasef loved the roles of strong women, until she formed pivotal stations in her artistic career despite the varying success, so she chose to play the role of Queen Jalila bint Murra, Queen Zenobia, Hind bint Utbah, the Arab poet Al-Khansa, the companion Nusaiba bint Ka’b, Queen Emerald Khatoun, and the companion Al-Shifa bint Abdullah, and she dreams of playing the role of a character Indira Gandhi, late Prime Minister of India.

And it was the role of the venerable Queen in the play “Al-Zeer Salem” that nominated her in 1974 to play the character of Hind Bint Utbah in the movie “The Message” by director Mustafa Al-Akkad, so that she thought her choice was a joke and did not believe until she stood in front of the camera.

Al-Akkad chose his actress, who extracted the nominations from the Lebanese "Nidal Al-Ashkar" and the Egyptian "Magda Al-Khatib", and at that time she had 14 years of continuous work in the theater.

Wassef at the closing ceremony of the "Carthage Film Tours" festival in Tunisia on November 5, 2022 (French)

The role of (Hind) was a major turning point in the biography of this Syrian actress, until she considered it a "gift from God" because it parallels her artistic experience that she went through before this epic work.

During that period, Wasef was famous only locally, but the movie "The Message" put her on the threshold of fame in the Arab world, and since that date her name has become a sign of success for any work she participates in.

And in 1976, the series "Dalila and Al-Zaybak" was the first colored Arab work in which she participated, and she considered it her real passport to the Arab world, to the point that when she traveled to Dubai in 1977 to film the series "Sari Al-Abdullah", security at the airport objected to changing her name, thinking that she was "Dalila". Not "Mona Wassef".

Her love for classical

Wasef had presented about 28 theatrical productions in classical Arabic without a prompter, as the theater refined her discipline, her body language, and her language, and she derived language, culture and experience from it.

Her linguistic skill was among the reasons for her nomination for the role of Hind Bint Utbah, whose superiority in her performance was linked to her being a theater actress who is fond of and passionate about her mother tongue.

Despite her love for her Levantine dialect in her works, she loves acting in classical Arabic, and considers it a sophisticated, musical language in communication, as she said, "When I act in classical Arabic, I do not feel that I am inside another skin, because I am very comfortable because I speak my language."

It was known about her that she does not accept to receive texts from the producers on the mobile phone, and she says, "I adore paper, and I want to read and edit the texts written on paper."

Wasef became famous in the series "Bab Al-Hara" as (Umm Joseph) (communication sites)

Awards and honors

  • Honorary Award from the "Morex" Festival 2018 in Lebanon.

  • Jordan's Tyche Award for the 2012 season.

  • Syrian Merit Medal of Excellence, 2009.

  • Wissam Al-Fateh from the Libyan Jamahiriya.

  • Wissam Ghassan Kanafani from the Palestine Liberation Organization.

  • Creativity Award from the Syndicate of Artists in Syria in 1977.

  • Syrian Women's Union Award for the movie "Something Is Burning".

  • "A Life of Giving" award from the Syrian community in America in 1999.

  • Two awards from the Cairo Festival for her role in the series “Al-Tarek” and “Layali Al-Salihiya” in 2004.

  • Honored by Algerian TV and the Fifth Algerian Writers Union for Cinema and Video.

  • The cover star of the Lebanese magazine "Al-Hasnaa" for the first time in her career in 1966.

  • Award from the 14th Damascus Film Festival.

  • Award from the Alexandria Film Festival in Egypt in 2008.

  • Award from Jamila Baalbek Festival in Lebanon.

  • Culture Shield at the Oran Film Festival for Arab Film in Algeria in 2008.

  •  The Culture Shield at the 33rd Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia.

  • Award from the Arab Producers Forum.

  • Honored in Dubai for her role in the series "The Whale" and "Struggle on Sand" in 2008.

responsibilities

  • Vice President of the Writers Union from 1991 to 1995.

  • Vice President of the Syrian Artists Syndicate from 1991 to 1995.

  • Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations from 2002 to 2004.