This article analyzes the sensationalized media coverage of a serial murder case during the Egyptian revolution of the early interwar era. Despite conflicting evidence, the media blamed the murders on two sisters from southern Egypt named Raya and Sakina. Through a close reading of Egyptian editorials and news reports, I argue that middle-class nationalists constructed Raya and Sakina as barbaric women who threatened to pull the nation back in time in order to legitimize their claim to power. Borrowing from Ann Stoler's analysis of the relationship between race and sexuality and Maria Lugones's concept of the modern/colonial gender system, this article maintains that race was as central to nationalist conceptions of female barbarism as gender, sexuality, and class. The enduring depiction of Raya and Sakina as the quintessential barbaric Egyptian women symbolizes the way in which the modern woman was constructed at the intersection of race and sexuality.

本文分析了两次世界大战初期埃及革命期间对一起连环谋杀案的耸人听闻的媒体报道。尽管证据相互矛盾，媒体仍将谋杀归咎于来自埃及南部的两个名叫拉雅和萨金娜的姐妹。通过仔细阅读埃及社论和新闻报道，我认为中产阶级民族主义者将 Raya 和 Sakina 塑造成野蛮的女性，她们威胁要让国家回到过去，以使她们的权力主张合法化。借用 Ann Stoler 对种族与性之间关系的分析以及 Maria Lugones 的现代/殖民性别体系概念，本文认为种族与性别、性和阶级一样，对于女性野蛮主义的民族主义概念来说都是至关重要的。