{"id":11572,"date":"2012-08-22T12:20:55","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T16:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/?p=11572"},"modified":"2012-08-22T12:31:23","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T16:31:23","slug":"wall-of-shame-ramadan-television-in-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2012\/08\/wall-of-shame-ramadan-television-in-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall of Shame: Ramadan Television in Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Now that Ramadan is over, I can get it out of my mind and scream hard on how women were portrayed in the Egyptian TV throughout the whole month.<\/p>\n

Women are seen as sex objects: there\u2019s no better way to put it than this clich\u00e9; it is as simple, as shallow, and as degrading as it has always been. One would think that the so-called Arab Spring would make some difference, after people had watched women side-by-side with men, playing their crucial role in all the battles since the first day of the revolution, but nope\u2026 not a chance.<\/p>\n

Here are just some of the messages we saw:<\/p>\n

Being a woman is offensive!<\/strong>
\nThere is no way to understand the Birell non-alcoholic beer ad campaign for Ramadan other than this. In the whole campaign, they present men in tough situations asking them to fuel the \u201cman inside\u201d by drinking their product for not to be \u201csoft and sissy\u201d\u2026 i.e., a woman. In case you think I\u2019m paranoid, here\u2019s one ad<\/a>, where they have a woman\u2019s wig on the guy\u2019s hair when he starts to be soft, and here\u2019s another one<\/a> where the man starts looking like a woman when he says \u201cplease.\u201d
\nThis is my favorite<\/a>, the one where he is accused<\/em> of being a woman when it shows on him that he had feelings for his girlfriend, what a wuss. For him to gain his glorious manly mustache, he shows his girlfriend\u2019s picture to his friend, because of course he\u2019ll only be worthy of being called a man when he objectifies women and act as if they mean nothing to him.<\/p>\n

Women are trophies and check marks!<\/strong>
\nI tried for days to find a way to begin talking about the TV series \u201cThe Fourth Wife\u201d without getting heartburn, but it was a lost cause.\u00a0 As an Egypt Independent\u00a0<\/a><\/em>article<\/a> explains,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Scene from The Fourth Wife. Image via Egypt Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201c\u2018The Fourth Wife,\u2019 starring Mostafa Shaaban, narrates the diaries of a young rich businessman who lives with his three wives in his villa and changes his fourth wife every now and then.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shaaban, who wears a galabeya and holds prayer beads as a sign of piety, is the expert on women\u2019s issues among his friends, from whom they all learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a message to women to remember not to cross the lines \u2026 to remind them of what their role should be [after the developments of the past year],\u201d argues Fatma Emam, a researcher at the Nazra Center for Feminist Studies.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Female doctors are not cute, and a woman is just like a shoe!<\/strong>
\nIn \u201cThe Needle\u2019s Eye\u201d series, the script was customised to be as dumb as it can get.
\nIn one episode, two guys are hanging out in a disco and they spot a woman; through the whole conversation, which extends to more than three scenes, this woman is referred to as El-Farda<\/em>,<\/span> meaning a one of a pair of shoes\u2026 isn\u2019t this just interesting!
\nIn other entertaining episode, a guy hitting on a woman wonders why she is called a doctor when she is that cute\u2026 wow, as a woman, and a physician, I\u2019m utterly flattered!!<\/p>\n

Women only care about men \u2026 and marriage<\/strong>
\nAnd when it comes to \u201cA Third Party\u201d series, they chose to be more true to themselves about being part of a man-world, the main characters in the show are men, and the majority of the female characters<\/a> so far both think and speak almost exclusively about men and marriage\u2026 After all, what other purpose does a woman have?!<\/p>\n

Women just have no sense of humour<\/strong>
\nLast but not least, a TV \u201ccomedy\u201d series called \u201cMy Wife in Trouble\u201d dedicated their efforts to joining the whole \u201clet\u2019s degrade women\u201d theme.\u00a0 <\/span>In one scene, the married loving husband laughs his ass off at his crying wife after making her believe he was cheating on her\u2026 how romantic!
\nJust try to imagine the opposite<\/a>\u2026 It wouldn\u2019t be funny, right?<\/p>\n

I could try to rationalize having such shows \u2013 and these just are examples \u2013 for Ramadan but I would not be successful. See, the real problem is not just these shows; it is the people who are supposed to be the audience.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, even when women try to fight a whole system that makes such \u201centertainment\u201d acceptable and fun, they don\u2019t fight it on the right level. When women live as second-class humans in real daily life, why would they be portrayed better or even considered on television?<\/p>\n

Whoever was responsible for the Birell ad, for example, decided that a woman is not in his target audience whatsoever and that she is not worth his consideration when he plans his marketing campaign, cause let\u2019s be honest, women accept far worse in their lives than those ads on TV!<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re not respected and we live with being humiliated, degraded and harassed in daily life, how would media be any different?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that Ramadan is over, I can get it out of my mind and scream hard on how women were portrayed in the Egyptian TV throughout the whole month. Women are seen as sex objects: there\u2019s no better way to put it than this clich\u00e9; it is as simple, as shallow, and as degrading as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[1850,206,390,1851,1847,1848,1849],"class_list":["post-11572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advertisements","category-television","tag-a-third-party","tag-birell","tag-egypt","tag-my-wife-in-trouble","tag-ramadan-television-series","tag-the-fourth-wife","tag-the-needles-eye"],"yoast_head":"\nWall of Shame: Ramadan Television in Egypt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Now that Ramadan is over, I can get it out of my mind and scream hard on how women were portrayed in the Egyptian TV throughout the whole month. 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