The first Arab woman pilot
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Despite opposition from her father, Lotfia Elnadi was determined to realise her dream to fly. With her mother's consent, she secretly took flying lessons from an English instructor at a small airfield in the desert outside Cairo. And in September 1933 she made history by becoming the first female pilot in the Arab world. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from the Egyptian film-maker and writer Wageh George who interviewed Lotfia at the end of her long life for a film about her amazing achievement entitled 'Take Off From The Sand'.
Photo credit: Alamy
Archive of Lotfia Elnadi from 'Take Off From The Sand'
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast on the BBC World Service. I'm Mike Lanchin. |
| 0:40.9 | Today we go back to Egypt in the 1930s and the story of the first woman in the Arab world |
| 0:47.0 | to become a pilot. Her name was Lottfeia El Nadi. |
| 1:00.0 | When I first took off, the plane felt light, as there wasn't anyone. When I first took off, the plane felt light light as there wasn't anyone up front. I felt as if I |
| 1:08.7 | owned the world. Here is the freedom that I've always dreamt off. |
| 1:15.0 | It was in September of 1933 that Lottfia El Nadi |
| 1:19.0 | soared into the air in a gypsy moth plane |
| 1:22.0 | from a small airstrip in the sand outside Cairo to make her first solo flight. |
| 1:27.0 | It was a moment to relish for the 25 year old. |
| 1:31.0 | Some people are strong-willed and overcome the obstacles and carry on, while others are |
| 1:40.7 | afraid. What I was doing was my way of rebelling. It was also a moment of |
| 1:47.7 | celebration for Egypt and for the Arab world. When she flew, the newspapers and the magazines, they were talking about the pioneer Lutfeya. |
| 1:59.4 | She understands very well what was the meaning that Lutfeia is doing this and she liked the |
| 2:05.6 | celebrity status of course of course she liked it she liked it and it was something for |
| 2:10.8 | her like she dreamed for herself and for her country. |
... |
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