Read The Angel Online

Authors: Uri Bar-Joseph

The Angel (3 page)

BOOK: The Angel
7.98Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Nasser had heard enough. He immediately ordered a comprehensive inquiry into Ashraf Marwan.
12
The man responsible was Sami Sharaf, Nasser's chief of staff and one of the most powerful men in Egypt—and who, in years to come, would play a crucial role in Marwan's story.

The report Sharaf sent to Nasser was not flattering. It emphasized Marwan's ambitiousness and his love for the high life, while doubting the sincerity of his feelings for Mona. For Nasser, a puritan in his personal life who was already worried about his daughter's lifestyle, this sort of suitor was not a positive choice, to say the least. Nasser was about to marry Hoda off to a serious, learned,
modest gentleman, and her groom was clearly a better model for the kind of man he would want Mona to marry as well.
13
Having received Sharaf's report, Nasser sat Mona down for a heart-to-heart talk, with the aim of convincing her not to marry Ashraf Marwan.

Mona refused to listen. She had made up her mind and insisted that Nasser enter into negotiations with Marwan's father over the terms of their engagement. Nasser rebuffed her repeated requests, but in the end, the greatest Arab leader since Saladin was bested by his even more stubborn daughter. He agreed to meet Ashraf Marwan's father.
14

THE ENGAGEMENT AGREEMENT
reached between the two families did not strictly follow tradition. The groom's family would pay a dowry of 1,000 Egyptian pounds (about $100), but no amount was set to be paid in the event of a divorce. Neither did the groom's family buy jewelry for the bride, as tradition would have it. Instead, Marwan gave Mona a diamond ring that had previously belonged to his mother, and to her mother before her.
15

The wedding was held in July 1966 in the Nassers' home. As opposed to other family events, this was a grand affair. Years later Mona recalled that her father had felt a need to host a large event because Hoda's wedding the previous year had been more modest, with many important people left off the invitation list. This time, invitations were extended not only to close family members but also to classmates of the bride and groom, as well as the entire top political echelon of Egypt, including members of the Revolutionary Council. The marriage contract was written by the
madhun
(the official who handles marriages and divorces) of Cairo, who in 1944 had officiated at the wedding of Mona's parents. War Minister Abdel Hakim Amer, an old friend of Nasser's, signed as a witness to the marriage contract, as did
Prime Minister Zakaria Mohieddin, who was one of the leaders of the Free Officers Movement.

Photos and movies from the ceremony show Nasser sitting with his wife to his right, his son Khaled to his left, and Khaled's younger brother Abdel Hakim to Khaled's left. Ashraf and Mona sat opposite her parents, next to Hoda and her husband. After hearing the recitation of the first sura of the Quran and a few other texts, Nasser gave his blessing to the young couple. Marwan, in his dapper gray suit, sky-blue tie, and white shirt, stood up and embraced his new father-in-law. But not everything was rosy: In the middle of the ceremony, Mona suddenly turned to her father and demanded a pair of earrings as a wedding gift. When Nasser balked, Field Marshal Amer took matters into his own hands, tracked down a pair of earrings, and handed them to the beaming bride.
16

The entertainment was world-class, with performances by two of the Arab world's top singers, Abdel Halim Hafez and Umm Kulthum. Hafez was a movie star at the peak of his career, and very close with Nasser's chief of staff, Sami Sharaf. Hafez would often visit the President's Office just to take in the revolutionary air—which he would then weave into his patriotic songs.
17
Among his other hits, he sang “The Wanderer” (“al-Sawah”), which was one of Nasser's favorites.

Umm Kulthum was the greatest female Arab vocalist of the twentieth century. She had known Nasser for years. A few days after the coup of July 1952, Nasser called her on the phone and promised her that if until then she had been the voice of Egypt, now she would become the voice of the whole Arab world. He also told her that he had deliberately scheduled the Revolutionary Council's secret meetings to coincide with live broadcasts of her concerts on Egyptian radio because he knew that the whole country was listening to her, and the council could meet without interruption.
18
Nasser's words had filled her with pride. And indeed,
Kulthum's concerts, broadcast on the first Thursday of every month across the Arab world via the Voice of Cairo, were a cultural event of the first order, stopping the entire Arab Middle East in its tracks as millions of listeners, from the poorest
fallah
to the wealthiest sheikh, were glued to radio sets at home or transistors on the street corners, listening to her magical voice. Kulthum's repertoire included nationalistic songs as well as love songs. She sang “The New Dawn” in praise of the short-lived United Arab Republic, which joined Egypt with Syria from 1958 to 1961; her song “Baghdad, the Lions' Fortress” was written after the overthrow of Iraq's monarchy in 1958. But at a wedding in Nasser's own home, she sang none of these. At Mona's request, she sang “You Are the Love” (“Ant Al-Hub”), which she first sang in 1965 and had become one of her greatest hits ever.
19

Radio Cairo reported on the wedding, stressing the joyful atmosphere and the loving glances that the couple and their parents exchanged, in the best romantic tradition of Egyptian movies of that time. Newspapers ran photographs of the event as well, showing Ashraf Marwan, dressed to the nines, standing with his young bride in her traditional wedding gown, as she held her father's hand.

Needless to say, not a word was mentioned about Nasser's dissatisfaction with his daughter's choice, even though the president was far from alone in his suspicions. One of Marwan's friends recalled, years later, that his “marriage to Mona did not surprise anyone who knew him, and testified to his lofty ambitions.”
20

THE NEWLYWEDS MOVED
into a small apartment purchased for them in Cairo. Nasser, who had married off two daughters in less than a year, wanted to buy both of them apartments. He knew little about the real estate market in Cairo, however, and had never paid much attention to his own finances, so he had no idea that he didn't have anything close to the necessary funds. A number of his friends got
together and paid a major part of the cost, without Nasser's ever finding out.
21
Just as he helped Hoda and her husband get jobs with the
Al-Ahram
newspaper conglomerate, so did Nasser help Mona. But while Hoda and Hatem were talented enough to work at the paper's prestigious strategic studies center, Mona worked at the children's books division.
22
Some people saw their jobs as a fitting expression of the difference between the abilities and talents of the two sisters.
23

Ashraf Marwan's own life went through changes then as well. His marriage to Mona dramatically improved his status and brought him closer to the main centers of power in Egypt, much as he had hoped. He was soon transferred from the chemical plants of the Egyptian military industry to the Republican Guards, a military division whose main purpose was to protect sensitive facilities on the home front. Yet while Marwan probably viewed the transfer as a step up, it was also a sign of Nasser's fragile faith in his son-in-law. He wanted to keep him close.

It wasn't close enough. Additional information concerning Marwan's ambitions that reached the Egyptian leader convinced him that another move was needed. In 1968, Ashraf Marwan was transferred to work in the President's Office, under the direct supervision of the chief of staff, Sami Sharaf.
24

SHARAF WAS WIDELY
known as a consummate schemer and one of the most ambitious men in Nasser's entourage. He was one of those shadowy types who wend their way into the corridors of power in every dictatorial regime. Born in Heliopolis to a doctor of means, Sharaf finished his studies with honors at the military academy in 1949 and joined the artillery corps. After the revolution, rumors surfaced that he was plotting against the new regime, together with other officers. At a certain point, he turned on the other conspirators, handing them over to Interior Minister Zakaria Mohied
din, who oversaw the internal security apparatus (Mukhabarat). Mohieddin was impressed with the young officer's talents and took him on board at his intelligence unit. The interior minister would eventually cool to Sharaf, however, and when Nasser asked him in 1961 to find him a new presidential chief of staff, Mohieddin sent Sharaf to the President's Office.

In this new post, the former artillery officer brought out his biggest guns. He quickly assembled a whole new intelligence operation. The agency's main task was to collect both secret and public information on every senior member of the regime. Sharaf became Nasser's eyes and ears in the top levels of Egyptian society.
25

Under Sharaf's direction, the President's Office became the nerve center of Egypt, as well as the filter through which information reached the president. Anything of diplomatic, political, or military significance, even ordinary gossip collected by the security agencies, went through him, and he personally edited the intelligence reports written exclusively for Nasser. At around the same time, the Egyptian leader began cutting himself off, avoiding direct meetings with top figures in the regime. It wasn't long before there remained only a small number of people—such as his close friend Mohamed Hassannein Heikal, editor of
Al-Ahram
—who could meet Nasser without the chief of staff's prior approval. Sharaf made sure not only to isolate Nasser but also to sully the reputations of various individuals as the need arose. Anyone who had lost favor with Nasser quickly found themselves out of a job, and sometimes in prison. Sharaf quickly amassed immense power, becoming one of the most feared men in Egypt.
26

When Ashraf Marwan was transferred to the President's Office, he was not unknown to Sami Sharaf. By this point, Sharaf must have had a thick dossier on Nasser's new son-in-law.

Marwan began working at the President's Office soon after the birth of his first son—Nasser's first grandson—Gamal. The
president dedicated some of his extremely limited free time to his grandson, as well as to his new granddaughter that Hoda had given him at around the same time. Ashraf Marwan, however, felt neglected. Fully aware of his father-in-law's mistrust, he failed to develop any significant relationship with him. Instead of mitigating the sense of distance and hesitation coming from Nasser, time had only made things worse. People who overheard exchanges between the two recall a young Marwan standing tense before his father-in-law, sometimes even quaking in his presence, stammering when he had to speak with him directly.
27

This was not what Marwan had in mind when he married Mona. Proximity to the core of power in Egypt certainly advanced his personal and political goals, but life in the shadow of a father-in-law who had no trust in him, and under a manipulative and aggressive boss who was constantly watching over him, was oppressive. Given that Marwan knew full well what kind of fate awaited people who crossed Sami Sharaf, he may have actually been afraid as well. The close supervision also prevented the young couple from enjoying life the way they had in college. Marwan's salary was a pittance. Abdel Majid Farid, who worked with him in the President's Office and wrote an important book about Nasser's final years, writes that Marwan earned 70 Egyptian pounds per month—the lowest salary of anyone in the office.
28
According to another source, he was a “level-6 employee,” with a salary of 32 pounds per month. Either way, his minuscule pay reflected his inconsequential position. According to the same source, Mona, while working in the children's books division of
Al-Ahram
, earned 35 pounds per month.
29
While the couple's income was reasonable for a middle-class family, it didn't match their expectations for a better life. What was more, Cairo in the years after the defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War was not the hopping town it had once been, with a much greater focus on the growing conflict with Israel, including a
military buildup that would allow Egypt to restore what had been lost (namely, honor and the Sinai Peninsula); there was also a focus on correcting fundamental weaknesses such as the poor quality of the army's manpower as well as corruption at all levels, including the level of the minister of war, that the war had laid bare.

So whether it was because he really wanted to go back to school, or just to get out from under the eyes of his father-in-law, Ashraf Marwan decided to put in a request to study abroad. To justify it, he cited the poor level of educational institutions in Egypt. Even Cairo University, where he had completed his bachelor's degree, and which was considered the best in the Arab world, didn't meet his profession's standards. Criticisms of Egypt's higher education system, especially in the sciences, were even voiced in public.
30
Without a doubt, life outside Egypt looked more promising. In 1968, the Marwans relocated to London, where he was to undertake a master's degree program in chemistry.

Nasser gave his approval.

IN LATE 1968,
Ashraf and Mona Marwan arrived in one of the most dynamic and stimulating cities on earth. The music and fashion mecca, the ultimate playground for the beautiful and the wealthy—this was London of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, boutiques on Carnaby Street, fashion realms of Chelsea and Knightsbridge. The reigning designer was Mary Quant, inventor of the miniskirt and hot pants; and the supermodel was Twiggy, who gave new, diminutive dimensions to feminine beauty. London had become the setting for countless movies and novels, the global capital of the new world culture, the premier destination for anyone fashionable and young.

BOOK: The Angel
7.98Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Lewis Chessmen by David H. Caldwell
Margaret Moore by Scoundrels Kiss
Taken to the Edge by Kara Lennox
Charlotte Cuts It Out by Kelly Barson
Tom Swift and His 3-D Telejector by Victor Appleton II
They Were Found Wanting by Miklos Banffy
Cupid's Dart by Maggie MacKeever
Fire and Ice by Lacey Savage