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."