Arab holiday TV specials bring lessons from the West

Arab holiday TV specials bring lessons from the West

Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press, Cairo

After more than 20 years in the United States, Auntie Nour
returns to her family home in Cairo with a mission: to use her
experiences abroad to help her family see others differently.

Nour -- the name means light in Arabic -- is a character in a
prime-time soap opera, an expert on education who wants to teach
some American pragmatism to her on-screen nieces and nephews, and
their parents as well.

Auntie Nour is one of about 20 Egyptian prime-time television
soaps that have aired around the Arab world this year during
Ramadhan, with some running into the Idul Fitri holiday that ends
the Muslim holy month.

The soaps often have a moral, and this year's lesson is
tolerance of people from outside the Arab and Muslim world and of
their different -- often liberal -- ideas. The lesson is
appreciated by some, but not by all.

"There is always a tendency to use television as an
educational tool," said Tarek el-Shinnawi, a film critic. "This
year, the subject of the 'other' and getting to know the 'other'
is very popular in TV drama."

Auntie Nour is not alone in presenting this theme. In A Matter
of Principle, the French-educated lawyer Roaya helps her sister
marry the man she loves after convincing their father that love
is more important than cementing family finances with a rich
husband.

Roaya, a modern, single women in her 30s, also decides to run
for office in an upcoming election -- delivering the message that
women can do so.

In past years, the most popular soaps covered Middle East
politics, the economic hardships understood by many Egyptians or
the controversy of the moment. News reports say the current crop
-- with preachy Western-educated do-gooders, some glitz and
scantily dressed women -- have not captured as many faithful
viewers.

In newspaper interviews, the script writer for Auntie Nour,
Mahmoud Abou Zeid, described his main character as an Egyptian at
heart, a practicing Muslim, but one who manages to mix East with
West.

The show's advocacy of Western ideas raised rumors that it was
funded by the United States as propaganda -- an accusation denied
by production officials who said it was financed by Egyptian
state TV.

This year's TV dramas come as Egypt and other Arab countries
are under pressure from the United States and the West to
liberalize and to root out terrorism. Industry insiders say
writers and producers rigidly follow the government line to
ensure they will get air time and avoid censorship, not only in
Egypt but in the wider Arab world where Egypt supplies most
prime-time television soaps.

The TV establishment here had come in for harsh criticism in
recent years, with Israeli and American groups calling some shows
anti-Semitic and Egyptians condemning another show for supposedly
promoting polygamy. The industry has taken another tack with
fewer religious historical dramas, preaching that focuses on
Islamic ritual rather than politics and dramas that emphasize
openness to new ideas.

Auntie Nour, for example, champions the right of young people
to choose their own lives, practice Islam with moderation and
still enjoy their parents' love and respect.

Her family scoffs at the plans of her nephew Diaa -- who, like
many young Egyptians, has been out of work since college
graduation -- to start a company to beautify cemeteries with
trees and plants. But Nour encourages him and asks why
cemeteries, where Muslims visit relatives' graves during
Ramadhan, should be barren and drab.

"Tombs are the place for burial, where we go pray for our dead
and read them the Koran. It should be clean and well preserved,
to fit such a special place," she tells the family.

Not everyone is responding well to such messages. One 17-year-
old viewer, Aya Mahmoud, was annoyed by Nour.

"She is screaming at us all the time and is preaching all the
time unnecessarily," Aya said. "No one is right all the time,
even if they are from America."

Still, others say better this message than more grinding of
the teeth over Arab grievances.

"We have enough politics in this part of the world," said Mona
Ahmed, a divorced mother of one. "(Nour) is educated and is
helping straighten out the kids. We all go to and love America.
They do things well, they have the best technology, education ...
so that is why she is preaching."