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Soap Opera Ruffles Feathers and Fatwas in Arab World

August 07, 2008 10:47 AM

By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, Dubai

Each night roughly 40 million people across Middle East are tuning in to one show: an immensely popular soap opera from Turkey called “Noor.” Its hunky blue-eyed star, Mohannad, is a devoted husband who supports his wife’s career and treats her as an equal – a fantasy for many women, but particularly those in the patriarchal Arab world.

“Noor tackles issues that close to everyone's heart and mind: love, marriage, divorce, extra-marital problems, pregnancy, women at work, you name it,” says Mazen Hayek, Director of Marketing with MBC, the network that runs the program. The fact that the show blends traditional Muslim values with a modern lifestyle broadens its impact, as does the fact that it is dubbed in spoken Arabic - not the more formal, stodgy Arabic used by writers and newscasters.

In tackling taboo topics with its plotlines Noor has miffed the conservative set. One of Saudi Arabia's top clerics issued a fatwa against the show and according to Saudi’s Al Watan newspaper, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh said that soaps like Noor “contain so much evil, they destroy people’s ethics and are against our values.”  Since then reports have surfaced of some villages smashing satellite dishes in line with the religious edict.
Al Arabia TV reports that in Nasiryah, Iraq pictures of Mohannad have been littered through streets so that people could step on his face as a show of opposition.

But the religious kerfuffle has apparently done nothing to stem the show’s popular appeal and social repercussions. Haifa Jedea, a star ABC intern originally from Saudi Arabia, hears that women young and old are planning their day around watching the broadcast. Al Arabia reports that women at hair salons in Jordan are requesting the red hair color of Sharifa, Mohannad's TV mother.

Anwar Al-Mansoor of Bahrain says the fact that they can comment on hunky Mohannad is a change in the Arab world. “Usually people are talking about the ‘hot’ girl, but now women are talking about a guy…it has become acceptable for a female to comment on a guy romantically in front of her husband, father, or brother.”

Helping “Noor” garner top ratings is its popular lead-in: Oprah. America's empress of talk airs in prime time, in English and has a substantial fan base.

“[Oprah] has the ability to tackle real issues and sometimes taboos without embarrassing anyone,” MBC’s Hayek says of Oprah’s foothold in the Arab world. “She's capable of reaching hearts and minds of people beyond boundaries or languages.”

Chalk one up for American soft power? With more Arab women going to college and joining the workforce, the spread of 'you go girl' culture can't be a bad thing.

For more on "Noor" check out this item from the AP:

Soap Opera Shakes Customs of Arab Married Life

August 7, 2008 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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