The Google Doodle has become somewhat of a modern signifier of legacy. The dedication (and artwork) published on the search engine’s home banner is used to celebrate and educate about historical figures and moments that are perhaps lesser known, but not undeserving.
Today the Google Doodle was dedicated to the Bahiga Hafez – the celebrated Egyptian actress, writer and filmmaker – on what would have been her 112th birthday.
The Alexandria-born actress was one of Egyptian cinema’s first multi-hyphenate stars, with her career successfully spanning screenwriting, music composing, directing and producing films for cinema. She even earned a degree in music composition in Paris in 1930, before moving to Cairo, where she was cast as a lead in 1930 silent drama Zeinab.
Her first solo directorial work was Layla al-Badawiyya (Laila the Bedouin), which was released in 1944, and she went on to produce a number of films under the banner of Fanar – the production company she founded with her husband Mahmoud Hamdi.
The ‘doodle’ of the pioneering cinema star was created by Cairo-based illustrator Mariam El Reweny, in homage to her countrywoman, who was born in 1908.
The doodle appears only to those on Google in the GCC, Lebanon, Iraq and North Africa.
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