Arabs - television

A soap opera wreaks havoc in Arabic homes

Tuesday 26 August 2008

‘Noor’, the Turkish soap opera following the twists and turns in the love lives of a rich Istanbul family, has turned into a social phenomenon across the Arab world.

‘Noor’, the Turkish soap opera following the twists and turns in the love lives of a rich Istanbul family, has turned into a social phenomenon across the Arab world.

“There is no way I could even contemplate missing an episode!” says Fatima al Zahra al Alaoui, a Moroccan accountant and a fan of the television series.

From north Africa to the Gulf countries, the subject of conversation around dinner tables has been the same for many months. It’s not the race for the White House or the slump in buying power that people are interested in but 'Noor'. Dubbed into Syrian dialect, the show is broadcast by the Saudi channel MBC 4 and has millions of fans.

A social phenomenon

The effect is such that people are divided into two camps – anti-Noor or pro-Noor.  On Facebook, the social meeting site, anti-Noor groups are multiplying as fast as die-hard fans of the series. Members of the ‘I hate Noor’ group denounce the series for being unrealistic and for having too much influence on the population.

Anti and pro-Noor camps are opposed all over Arab society, even within couples. Fadi Makdissi, a Syrian pharmacist living in Paris, hates the series because “young and old adore it but it’s ridiculous.”  While his wife loves watching the programme, for Fadi it is just a passing trend that bored Arab society is latching on to, to fill some kind of gap.

The effect the show has had on the population is unusual. Anecdotal examples abound, such as those of couples who have divorced because neither person considers the other to be as good a person as the show's hero and heroine, Mohanad and Noor. In Lebanon, reportedly, a woman sold her cattle to be able to better focus on the series.

Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, religious groups have begun a backlash. A Saudi imam issued a fatwa against TV channels broadcasting the show, accusing them of conspiring against Islam and its prophet. But according to Ibrahim al-Ariss, a cinema critic working for the London-based al Hayat Arabic daily, conservative Muslim opposition has increased the show’s popularity. “Some people started watching the TV series because Muslim conservatives started criticizing it,” he explains.

Entering the modern world

“The TV series tells romantic stories that suit us. In Noor, the characters lead Westernized lives but have Arab and Muslim values,” explains Fatima al Zahra. Other fans share her point of view. “We are not used to romance quite like this,” says Sawson Makdassi, Fadi’s wife, referring to the way Mohanad, the hero of the series, showers attention and gifts on his wife - and shows his feelings in public.

The blend of Muslim values and Turkey’s western ways partly explain the blinding success of the TV series in the Arab world. “Viewers who were used to watching Mexican series found that Noor was closer to their concerns,” says al-Ariss.

Noor also illustrates the way “Arab societies entered the modern world much like Turkey did,” says al-Ariss. He explains that most Arab societies prefer the Turkish model, on its path to modernity, rather than the Iranian one.