Jihadi Du Jour: Clashes over Ramadan soap operas

A T.V. show angers Saudi Arabian and Egyptian religious conservatives.

Cairo--Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a new Ramadan tradition in the Arab world. It is the annual controversy provoked by TV programmes made to cash in on another modern Ramadan ritual - that of families spending long hours in front of the television set, often from sunset, when Muslims break their fast, until sunrise, when they resume it.

This year these programmes have caused uproar in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, pitting religious conservatives against those of a more secular bent. The Saudi satirical series Tash Ma Tash, a Ramadan staple for 14 seasons, has this year angered conservatives by taking on the religious police who tour the kingdom's public spaces ensuring that women are adequately covered, the sexes do not mix and shops shut down for prayers.

In one episode, set in a bucolic village in an unnamed country closely resembling Saudi Arabia, officials, dubbed "the guardians of virtue", ponder how best to ensure that women riding donkeys should be kept "protected" from men on the roads. One guardian proposes digging tunnels for women only, while another suggests females should sit in closed wooden boxes atop their animals and navigate using periscopes. Eventually a wall is built dividing the village into sections for men and women.

Viewers will not have missed the episode's fierce satire which takes repeated swipes at the ban on females driving in the kingdom, the resistance to women working and the double standards governing the treatment of the sexes. Predictably Tash Ma Tash has angered conservatives, prompting some preachers to lead their congregations in prayers calling on God to bring down his wrath on the programme makers.