Taheyya was born in 1919 in a small village north of the delta in Egypt. Taheyya left for Cairo and was introduced to Badiaa Massabni, a Lebanese dancing star who had her own night club in Cairo where Taheyya performed the Brazilian karioka dance for which she became very well known and was nicknamed after it. Taheyya was Badiaa's student and performed in her star studded troupe, where she met the famous film director Mohammed Emmara. he gave her the first screen role in the film "Oqbal el Bakari" and she never looked back ever since, appearing in no less than 190 films, dancing and acting.

  Taheyya was the common denominator in the most famous dance musical films featuring stars like Ibrahim Hammouda, Karim Mahmoud, Abdul Aziz Mahmoud as well as Farid Al Atrash. her style of dance was that of hawanim (plural of hanim, meaning a lady ). This style is danced virtually on one spot, using very little space without loosing any of the dynamic expression of the dance.

  It is a pleasure and an honour to know that at the time of making this volume of "The Stars of Egypt", Lady Karioka is still alive, performing and giving much of her artistic talent to the world of music, dance, theatre and film.