Sullafa Fawakhragy retains her role in “Shagarat al-Durr” despite the fact that her salary was cut in half

Actress Sullafa Fawakhragy has rebuffed certain media accounts concerning her withdrawal from the television series “Shagarat al-Durr” indicating instead that she will be part of the series’ cast despite the financial problems witnessed by the Egyptian television industry following the revolution. The recent financial deficit has led Sullafa to accept half of her original salary. Sullafa has also stated that she had previously declined work on the television series on two occasions as she did not intend to present a historical work following “Cleopatra”. However the insistence of Egyptian Television – which is producing the work – led her to peruse the script and agree to the salary before signing the contract.Fawakhragy explained that the management at Egyptian Television called her to tell her that they were forced to reduce the salaries of Egyptians working on the show by one half due to the unusual conditions which Egypt is undergoing. Thus the management explained that they were forced to offer her only half of the agreed upon salary and that she has the right to withdraw from the production if she so chooses. Sullafa stated “Of course I would not have wanted to leave them in such a state and I felt that it was my patriotic duty to continue with them as Egypt is my second homeland and I will not let financial matters be the deciding factor in such a situation. This was the least that I could do for a fellow Arab country and despite the fact that I had turned down another project due to reasons related to salary, matters have changed completely since then.”