Obituaries - Sept. 22, 1999

* Tahiya Karioka;

Leading Belly Dancer

Tahiya Karioka, 78, the Arab world’s most famous belly dancer. Born Badawiya Mohammed Karim, Karioka studied dancing as a young girl at the Ivanova Belly Dancing School before working on Mohammed Ali Street, Cairo’s equivalent of Broadway in the 1930s and ‘40s. Karioka’s first film was “Doctor Farahat” in 1935. Over her long career, she performed in about 300 films, plays and television soap operas. One of her most popular movies was “Youth of a Woman,” in which she played a landlady who seduces a young, naive student. The film was shown at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival and won the international directing prize in 1958. The beautiful and elegant Karioka was considered the Arab world’s Marilyn Monroe. She attracted the attention of key figures in Egypt and won the admiration of the late King Farouk. She also attracted suitors, and married 14 times. The outspoken Karioka--who criticized the military rule of Egypt after the 1952 army coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser--temporarily stopped performing when the new regime accused her of conspiracy. On Monday in Cairo of a heart attack.

Fred Roti; Politician Sentenced to Prison

Fred Roti, 78, a former Chicago alderman and once-powerful politician who was convicted of political corruption. The FBI’s Operation Greylord probe of City Hall corruption found that Roti had pocketed bribes for fixing court cases linked to organized crime. He was convicted of conspiracy, bribery and extortion by a federal jury and sentenced in 1993 to four years in prison. Roti had held a series of city jobs, including working at the city morgue, before his election to Chicago’s Board of Aldermen in 1968. The son of Italian immigrants, Roti was a product of the notorious 1st Ward Democratic organization, long suspected of being influenced by organized crime. The ward included Chicago’s downtown and old Italian community around Taylor Street. On Monday in Chicago of lung cancer.