Farida (born Safinaz Zulficar Arabic: صافيناز ذو الفقار 5 September 1921 – 16 October 1988) was the queen of Egypt for nearly eleven years as the first wife of King Farouk.

Queen Farida was born Safinaz Zulficar on 5 September 1921[1] to an Egyptian noble family in Janaklis, Alexandria.

Her father, Youssef Zulficar Pasha, was a judge of Circassian origin;[2][3] he was also vice president of the Alexandria Mixed Court of Appeals.

On her mother's side, Farida's uncle was the artist and lawyer Mahmoud Sa'id, and her grandfather was the former prime minister of Egypt Muhammad Said Pasha, who was also of Circassian origin.

[5] Farida attended elementary and primary education at Notre Dame de Sion in Alexandria, a school run by French nuns.

[12] Also the rest of the women of the Royal family were freed from the seclusion of the harem of the Muhammad Ali dynasty after Farouk's succession to the throne.

Queen Farida accepted the chair of the Red Crescent Society and was also honorary president of the Egyptian Feminist Union and the New Woman Alliance.

[15] Doria Shafik viewed the royal divorce, and Farida's choice to leave an unhappy marriage, as a call to the Egyptian woman to find her freedom and liberate herself: "In exchange for her liberty, Farida gave up a throne, one of the supreme gestures in the history of the Egyptian woman".