Middle East: Why Are Ramadan TV Specials So Controversial?
Scandals have become something of a Christmas tradition. Every year during the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan, there will be at least one major dispute stemming from what is commonly known as the Ramadan season of new television shows. In the recent past, new series released during Ramadan have seen ambassadors summoned, clerics giving speeches and activist groups protesting.
This year’s Ramadan is no exception.
The Tunisian minister of education has already called for a series made in Tunisia, Fallujah, to be banned from local screens. It portrays the dark side of local student life, complete with drug dealing and students beating up a teacher. An edict was also released to remove it from the air.
In Iraq, a historical drama series called “Muawiya” (Muawiya is the name of the first Islamic caliph) was also banned. He looks at the first Muslim civil war, an event that led to the bitter divide between Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims that still exists today.
And another new Iraqi series called “Al Kasser” (The Predator) was also canceled there because senior Iraqi government officials said the historical series insulted Iraq’s southern tribes by portraying their leaders as primitive tyrants obsessed with sex and power. The private broadcaster that broadcast the program had received threats and, in a notethe country’s federal media monitoring commission explained that it banned broadcasting in the interests of “social cohesion”.
But this is not surprising. Scandals surrounding the wildly popular Ramadan TV shows have become almost as mainstream as the holiday itself.
Daily life during Ramadan
During Ramadan, practicing Muslims fast during the day. After sunset, restaurants open and families gather to break the fast. As a result, the whole pattern of daily life changes during Ramadan, people stay up late and one of the most popular night activities involves watching the latest episode of a new TV series together after dinner. These series usually begin at the start of the holiday and air a new episode every night, or every second or third night, before ending at the end of the month.
“Ramadan is not just a time of fasting and reflection, it is also a time of high TV viewing and changing entertainment preferences,” said Joe Khalil, associate professor of global media at Northwestern University in Qatar, author of several studies and books on television made in the Middle East.
Research commissioned by Netflix in 2018 found that during Ramadan, television audiences in the region soared by around 80% and that peak times shifted to between 2am and 5am. popular channels during the Ramada series will triple.
That’s why Ramadan TV series offer something for everyone, from spies and pranksters, historical tales of war and adventure, celebrity chefs, game shows, soap operas and sitcoms.
Why so scandalous?
Industry experts have a few theories as to why the controversies surrounding these TV series are also predictable.
It may be partly due to the fact that Ramadan is a religious holiday, which makes associations with socially controversial subjects and standard soap opera fare more sensitive. It could also be that a lot more people are paying attention. But mostly, they say, it’s the increasingly intense competition.
After the proliferation of Arab-owned satellite channels in the early 2000s, competition to get your show in front of Ramadan viewers has increased substantially, said Ahmad Hayat, an assistant professor of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tennessee. whose previous research focused on Kuwait’s Ramadan series.
Hayat describes the last two decades as an “age of network proliferation”.
“Now, if you look at the reviews from the public, the comment you find most often is ‘this is repetitive’ or ‘we’ve seen this before,'” Hayat told DW. “So if you’re not competitive enough, if you don’t have the best stories or something that sets you apart from everything else on these networks, it’s extremely difficult to get your show introduced to that audience. And you won’t be able to survive,” he concluded.
“Controversies over Ramadan TV shows arise for a variety of reasons, including the industry’s highly competitive environment where rash decisions can lead to poor content choices,” confirmed Northwestern University’s Khalil. “Furthermore, as cultures and societies evolve, people’s creative choices and tastes change, making it difficult to cater to all without upsetting or offending some.”
Sending political messages
This is also true of the subtle – and sometimes not-so-subtle – political messages on TV shows. Most production companies and satellite channels in the Middle East have some sort of connection to political figures, as well as widely varying levels of censorship and state support. Just as films made in Hollywood or China often reflect nationalist politics and patriotically portray certain types of foreigners as the most villainous, so too do those made in the Middle East. And they do this while carefully balancing what their governments and public attitudes allow.
For example, as Kareem Shaheen, Middle East editor at New Lines magazine, pointed out this month, a new series looking at the colonial legacy of the Ottoman empire is just the latest show to portray Turks negatively. In this way, entertainment can have diplomatic consequences in real life, he warned. “The entrenchment of Turkey’s image as an abusive colonial overlord is likely to have far-reaching repercussions and complicate the regional realignment taking place today,” Shaheen wrote.
All publicity is good publicity.
With competition increasing, industry watchers also suspect that, in some cases, part of a marketing campaign may even involve orchestrating a scandal.
Because of the attention traditionally given to Ramadan series, production companies have already run background checks on everyone involved, including research into their political views, what they wear to social events and what they post on social media. In other words, they already know which actor or director might be controversial and what reactions they might get.
“Producers have become experts at dealing with scandals or even orchestrating them,” explained Khalil. “The idea is to pull the audience in during the first few episodes. If they can do that, the audience will presumably stick with them for the rest of the month.”
Thanks to the Internet and social media, ordinary viewers are also empowered. If it gains traction, an influencer’s complaint about a program could lead to government intervention. This season in Iraq, a senior Iraqi cleric made local headlines by criticizing the portrayal of an Iraqi woman in a drama series about Arab women living in London. On the show, the Iraqi was portrayed as subservient to the women of the Gulf states and that was offensive, the Iraqi cleric argued.
In 2021, the Egyptian historical drama, “El Malek” (The King), was discontinued because of complaints from the public about the accuracy of the costumes and even the lead actor’s beard, which had religious significance. A 2022 Tunisian series called “Baraa” (Innocence) was criticized by local women’s rights activists for its portrayal of polygamy, which is illegal in the country.
More controversy in the future?
Khalil says it’s hard to quantify all the Ramadan TV controversies and their impact.
“I don’t think you can say there’s more or less [controversy]”, he argued. “But I think you can say that if you look at the continuity of the controversies, they are changing in many ways – for example, the sociocultural aspects or the political orientation, or those created for marketing purposes “, concluded.
Edited by: Andreas Illmer
Source: DW
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