A visit to the home of Egypt’s most notorious serial killers
ALEXANDRIA: The mystery of Raya and Sekina is still alive until today, despite their execution in 1922.
The house of the most notorious female criminals in Egypt’s modern history is still a riddle for the residents of Al Laban district where visitors sometimes pass by to get a glance at the infamous abode where innocent women were strangled and buried after being stripped of their jewelry.
Ironically their home lies opposite the old Laban police station that’s been shut down and kept in its original location in memory of the horrific crimes committed under their very noses.
The station is separated from the house by a spacious yard used by a nearby coffee-shop to place extra tables for its guests who sit around for hours sipping mint tea and playing backgammon, oblivious of the horror the old deserted building stands for.
The shadow of a palm tree in front of the house is strangely disconcerting for a first-time visitor. But when I ask the café clients how they felt about the place, they said: “Why should we care, it was a long time ago.
Some street vendors selling food had pitched their stalls at different points around the yard.
“What are you selling, Haga? I asked one woman who had covered her stuff.
“Mubrum, she answered.
“What’s that? Can you show me?
“This is couscous, I replied.
She nodded. She was obviously reluctant to use the “c-word which is street-lingo for a woman’s vagina.
“Is this the house of Raya and Sekina? I ask.
“So they say, she replies reservedly, clearly avoiding the subject.
What I later discovered, however, was that the majority of residents were divided on whether it really was their house. But everything about it suggests it is the one. Besides its dilapidated state, it is lined by a concrete wall from the insides, some parts of which are visible through the rusty bars of the windows.
But the 50-year-old waiter at the café has a theory.
“This isn’t Raya and Sekina’s house, said Abdou. “Don’t correct me. I was born and raised here. Egyptian and Arab tourists come here with high expectations of seeing the place. Because we don’t want to disappoint them, we tell them this is the very house they are looking for.
He adds: “The real house was on 15 Mecoris Street, now Mohamed Youssef Fakhr Street. This isn’t number 15. Raya and Sekina’s house was demolished a long time ago. Now another building near that blacksmith’s stands in its place. Near the church.
The house was facing the police station on the front and the shrine of Sidi Emad from behind. A lot of people rush for their prayers at Sidi Emad Mosque five times a day, just a street away from where the killings used to take place.
But a watchmaker whose shop lies next to the café, disagreed.
“No, this is the very house of Raya and Sekina, he stressed.
“We’ve known this to be their house since we were little kids. But I don’t think it’s deserted due to its association with these murders. It’s just that the building’s legal status has not been pronounced despite the long decades.
“People don’t really care if it’s haunted. A street away from Manshiya and Raml station, the house is ideal for anyone looking to move to this neighborhood.
An Alexandrian cab driver told me that since no relatives of the owner, who died decades ago, had claimed it, the house now belongs to the ministry of endowments.
Other drivers had initially advised me not waste my time. “You won’t find anything, said Salem. “Everything has been removed. You’ll just be wasting your time. There is now a new Laban police station and different types of buildings.
But it seems this was also the version of the story shared by the district’s elderly. “Raya and Sekina’s house? No, this isn’t the house; it’s a store that was closed down four years ago, said Hag Ali Kamel, one shop owner.
“I am 67. I was seven when they were arrested, said Kamel, unaware that if this was true, he would be 90.
“What Raya and Sekina? said a shoemaker who was apparently in his 70s. “We don’t even remember them.
“It is the criminals’ house, confirmed Hamed, 45, a bearded zalabia seller on Sidi Emad Street.
“People tend to deny that the house exists because a lot of phantoms used to appear in this neighborhood. Don’t forget that at least some 13 women had been murdered in that house.
“About 20 years ago the area here was not that congested and a lot of people who passed by the house at night said that they heard weird sounds and saw ghosts roaming by.
“This is the house of Raya and Sekina, they can’t deny it, said Ibrahim, 24, a carpenter as he worked with this father. “What store? Since I was a kid I had never seen anyone opening its doors.
As I approached number 15 to snap a photograph, the blacksmith became furious.
“Are you shooting me or the house, he protested. “Yes, their house used to be here; but what you’re shooting is the one which came up in its place.
But it seems it’s not only ghosts who spook the residents. Apparently the memory of Raya and Sekina, the two villagers who hailed from Upper Egypt to settle in Alexandria early last century, was a stigma that people are keen to erase for eternity.
Apart from the criminal aspect of their history, both women were reported to have been running a brothel that catered to the needs of Egyptian workers and British soldiers. This was a period of Egyptian history marked by acute economic depression that took a heavy toll on the social scene.
But whoever visits the area will only be interested in the murders and the mystery that surrounded them.
A black and white blockbuster that was produced in the 1950s about Raya and Sekina was the beginning of a media focus that turned both women into legendary figures.
A radio series followed by the 1985 theatrical hit as well as last year’s TV serial about them produced by the Dubai-based MBC channel, have all boosted the notoriety of Raya and Sekina.
Abdu, the coffee shop waiter, said that after the TV serial, the most elaborate and detailed account of the lives of these women, was broadcast, a lot of people came to the area to discover the neighborhood where they committed their heinous crimes.
“What! Set up a special museum at their place? said a shocked taxi-cab. “Although they aren’t originally Alexandrian, we don’t really support creating a museum for murderers. That would encourage criminals.
“But Raya and Sekina were not normal murderesses, I said.
” I know, responded the cab driver. “It’s bad enough that the authorities have kept the house and the police station. No more of that please.
