CAIRO: Pioneer Egyptian radio host Amal Fahmy passed away on Sunday aged 92 after a long struggle with illness following a rich broadcasting career, Al-Ahram newspaper reported. During her 67 years of working in radio and television, Fahmy was the first woman to to head a state-owned radio station in the Middle East. Fahmy joined Egyptian radio in 1951, and began hosting her own weekly program in 1958. She spent 50 years as an anchor hosting her popular radio show “Aal El-Nasseya” (At The Street Corner) on the main state-owned radio station, which saw her engage with citizens in talking about a variety of topics. Fahmy interviewed a wide scope of Egypt’s public personalities, in addition to international celebrities, like Russian pilot and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin — the first human to travel into space — during his visit to Cairo in the 1960s. Her show was suspended once during her lifetime career in the 1960s when she aired an anti-government complaint from a citizen during the rule of President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. But it resumed when Anwar Sadaat became a president in 1971. The veteran host continued to host her weekly program until 2014, when she decided to retire “as an act of protest against what she said was neglect from state authorities toward her radio career,” the newspaper said.