SYRIA: Veteran Syrian television director Najdat Anzour faces criticism as he takes on Muslim "extremism"

Record ID: 279033

  • Title: SYRIA: Veteran Syrian television director Najdat Anzour faces criticism as he takes on Muslim "extremism"
  • Date: 7th September 2010
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (SEPTEMBER 2, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) NAJDAT ANZOUR, THE DIRECTOR OF THE SERIES, SAYING: "I am not against the idea of a veil. What I deal with is the behaviour of this person in society. It is a personal expression about freedom. They (women) are free to wear whatever they want but what we should care about is their behaviour in the societie
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA61EQII6MW6L6KS2AKDVMHWPQZ
  • Story Text: Syrian director Najdat Anzour faces criticism for his latest TV drama that depicts a religious zealot as a hypocritical man who abuses his sister over Islamic customs.
    A veteran Syrian director who has shocked audiences by portraying a religious zealot who abuses women says his popular television series could help stop an Arab slide towards extremism.
    Najdat Anzour's "What your right hand possesses", whose heroine Leila is forced by her brother Tawfiq to wear the full veil while he has illicit affairs, is being shown on television stations during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Oman and Libya.
    "Our job is to warn. To say this is right and this wrong. We should talk about any phenomenon that rises in society. I never imagined that I would put my camera in a Damascus street in the 50s and see this number of veiled women. But now 90 percent are veiled and half of them, I am sure, aren't wearing it with personal conviction," said Anzour.
    The 30-episode series, set in Syria and France, has attracted a wide following, as well as criticism by some Syrians who see it as unfairly targeting the highly devout -- especially since its title is taken from the Koran.
    Mohammad al-Buti, a government-backed cleric who teaches Islamic law at Damascus University, initially described the series as a cancer and a mockery of God, though he later retracted his remarks saying he had not seen the work.
    Anzour, 56, argues for wider political freedom in the Arab world and says "wrong" interpretations of Islam cannot be allowed to dominate Arab media and television, with Saudi Arabia controlling major outlets.
    "I am not against the idea of a veil. What I deal with is the behaviour of this person in society. It is a personal expression about freedom. They (women) are free to wear whatever they want but what we should care about is their behaviour in the societies. We have to study and see whether they wear this veil under the parents and the pressure from the neighbourhood or area that she lives in, or is she wearing it through conviction?"
    Syrian television drama is big business by Arab standards, attracting millions of dollars in investment and adverts and vying with Egypt for audiences across the Middle East during the month of Ramadan, when new productions make their debut.
    While the issues raised can stir controversy, they are usually in line with the policy of the secular government, which has been controlled by the Baath Party since it took power in 1963, outlawing opposition and imposing emergency law still in force.
    The state, which crushed the Muslim Brotherhood as well as secular opposition parties in the 1980s, has recently made it clear that it does not favour having fully veiled women in the education system.
    But the authorities have been tolerant of other Muslim religious displays and support the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah Shi'ite movement.
    Anzour says the series does not exclusively criticise religious characters, and shows unsavoury secular figures as well.
    Leila's devout father opposes her brother dictating how she dresses, as well as his decision to whip her after he catches her with her boyfriend -- despite a medical examination showing she was still a virgin.
    Impervious to contradictions, Tawfiq gets a high school girl pregnant and starts an affair with a widow of an Islamist militant who died fighting in Iraq.
    Mohammed Habash, a doctor in Islamic Religious Law, said he welcomed television that tackles contentious issues in the way some Muslims practise their faith.
    "I am personally in favour of series or programmes that criticise traditional Islamic orations. This problem is no longer a simple one, there are Islamic countries that are burning today because of wrongful guidance and because of cultural matters that have been taboo. But what is handled in these cultures is wrong and it has to be exposed so people can become aware of it," he said.
    The series, whichthis week, shows Tawfiq espousing violence as hints of his private transgressions become known to his family. He preaches that violence should be used to make people adhere to what he regards as strict tenets of faith and that it is a duty of the faithful to topple non-Islamic systems.
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