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Manar Abouheif
Manar Mohamed Mahfouz has used the name Manar Abouheif for her artistic and sporting activities after her marriage to Abdellatief Abouheif, the Egyptian former champion swimmer. Manar Abouheif graduated from the St Claire English Commercial School (London Pitman's), also the Tiegerman Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Music in London and studied composition, opera singing, piano, the theory of music and ballet. Mrs. Abouheif established the first water ballet team in Egypt in the early 1950s. She has a pure coloratura soprano voice and sang operatic parts in international song festivals and other venues including performances in La Traviata, the Barber of Seville, Sheherazad and the part of Gilda in Rigoletto at Le Centre Cultural Italien "Dante Alighieri" in Alexandria in 1967, for which she received critical acclaim. Mrs. Abouheif has also conducted orchestras (the band "Youth Melodies") and the choir which she founded in 1963, and directed a dance troup performing musicals and variety show.
Mrs. Abouheif held the post of General Director of the National Review Theater and Administrative Director of the Ministry of Culture. In the sporting field Manar Abouheif excelled in the equestrian arena as a champion show jumper and as a jockey, riding for fifteen years as an amateur, ten years as a professional and being the first woman jockey to be issued with a license by the Fort Eyrie race-track in Canada in 1963. Also an expert in judo, she established not only the first riding team but also the first fencing and rowing teams in Egypt, with further sporting interests in tennis, ping-pong and car racing (this last sport being one in which her son Nasser Abouheif is a champion).
Mrs. Abouheif was a major source of support to her husband Abdellatief Abouheif in his many long distance swimming achievements in which he won the title of Champion of Champions four times and The Greatest Swimmer In History before his retirement from the sport in 1975. Mrs. Abouheif has been a member of FIDOF for thirty years and is a member of SASEM.
Received lately from A.B.I. (The American Biographical Institute) the Golden Record for achievements in honor of career excellence and outstanding contributions to international society 1997. Received also from A.B.I. in 1997 a Commemorative Medal in recognition of her selection as Woman of the year for outstanding community and professional achievements.
