For background information, see the explanations on Non-U.S. copyrights.
This work was in the public domain in Egypt in 1996 because Article 20 of Law 354 of 1954 pertaining to Copyright Protection, which was in effect at the time, provided for a 15-year term of copyright (starting from the date of first publication) for photographic and audio-visual works that lacked the characteristics of a creative work (i.e., that simply reproduced reality mechanically), regardless of whether the copyright holder was a moral person or a private person.