Now that the Ramadan Television season has ended, let's dive into the series' foreshadowed message that caused a series of debates on social media. Almost every day throughout the month, a new topic of discussion spread online about the themes and ideas portrayed in the aired scenarios. One of the most distinguished themes was betrayal.
In Ded El-Kasr, the married couple Salma and Karim, played by Nelly Karim and Mohamed Farrag, shared doubts against each other and Salma was cheated on. In Ely Maloosh Kebir, Ghazal (Yasmeen Abdel-Aziz) was betrayed by her close friend Nadine (Donya Abdel-Azeez) as she made her husband leave her and then married him herself, then cheating on him as well. In Harb Ahleya, Tamara (Gamila Awad) manipulated her friends and her best friend, betraying their trust. Many more examples of betrayal were shown this Ramadan.
Sociological Perspective
According to sociology professor, Saied Sadeq, “betrayal is a favorite topic for drama as it contains love, stabbing in the back and feeling victimized”. Many people go through such experiences several times in their lives. Drama in Ramadan prefers to play with such themes because divorce rate is rising in Egypt and many arab countries, therefore audiences demand such topics and themes. Most of the viewers are women and they enjoy such topics. This is to the extent that these soap operas are aired once more after Ramadan for those who didn’t get the chance to watch them the first time.
Cheating is not ingrained but some people may be naïve and are exploited. This is universal.
Script and drama writers only have money on their minds and focus on what attracts the audience. A play on the same theme of cheating and betrayal is the current successful drama of choice. Cairo: Kabul contains political betrayal and intelligence, which gained its popularity since it is what the regime bases its legitimacy on.
Drama has purposes. It enlightens, informs and educates. So in a sense it forewarned people not to be naive otherwise they would get hurt like the character in the drama.
Psychiatric Perspective
“Unfortunately, the drama series fixate the idea of betrayal and normalize the concept indirectly into our society, which gives audiences the sense that this is the norm,” said psychiatrist and member of the American Psychiatric Association, Doctor Noha Reda.
Dr. Reda added that this portrayal makes a person think that if everyone does this then, why shouldn’t I do whatever I want as well, and that the needs justify the means.
These portrayals show audiences that through the difficult life pressures and the dire living conditions, the reasonable and easy way out is through taking the irrational and improper routes. In addition, our society’s behaviors have been affected deeply by foreign ideologies and behaviours, as well as the openness to other cultures that was facilitated by the current technological advances in communication. Therefore, it became easier to conceal forms of betrayal without raising any suspicions. Dr. Reda also added that people’s concern with raising younger generations has shifted to other interests such as materialistic concerns, and the aim is to reach these concerns in any way possible.
“We get lots of cases suffering from psychological repercussions as a result of betrayal, which are far too difficult to therapize and require years to get to a good outcome.”
However, we couldn’t generalize the idea that the whole society has the betraying trait, as there are still those who keep themselves from being pulled into wrongdoings. We need to highlight this issue as it affects all aspects in life, said psychiatrist Noha Reda.
Dr. Reda elaborated that people find drama series interesting as it gives them guides on how to analyse situations in their own lives, according to the characters the see in the series. It gives them keys and openings to predict and doubt those around them, believing that they have gained social experience from the dramas, which have always been a source that affects the mind-sets of any society that has not achieved intellectual and cultural maturity that allows them to differentiate between what to be affected with and what not.
Drama should highlight the consequences of betrayal on all possible aspects, as it would most definitely result in the fall of many relationships, loses and psychological damage ranging throughout all ages. Drama writers should aim to produce stories that are balanced and have a variety of ideas, without the sole purpose of highlighting only the wrong actions that attract audiences and spread false ideologies that betrayal is normal therefore the media reports reality.
And on the contrary, reality has other intriguing stories to tell but they may be not that attention-grabbing as ones with betrayal. Producers should aim to tell inspiring stories that build positive morals.
“The truth is that our society has been suffering from significant moral turmoil,” concluded Dr. Reda.
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