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by law from attacking, criticizing, or referring to the king and
the royal family unless they submit their writing to a censor
first.
There is good reason for this law. Farouk's private life has
become a public scandal. For nearly a decade, while he was
married to the beautiful Queen Farida—meaning "the Only
One"—he committed adultery with women he picked up publicly. Next to politics the king's promiscuous private life is the
most discussed public matter in Cairo. It is common knowledge that he attends Cairo and Alexandria night-clubs for
"pick-ups" to feed an insatiable lust. From many Egyptian
eyewitnesses I have ascertained that frequently when he sees
an attractive woman he nods toward her. The royal pimps immediately get busy. They accost her, bowing, and tell the lady
it is the king's wish to "dance" with her. Since the king rarely
dances in public (he is too fat to look courtly), the happy
event usually takes place in the king's private quarters in convenient sections of Cairo. His willing and unwilling dance
partners, so reports go, have included Italian belles, English
society women, and during the war,