Soaps -- Ramadan style

TV watching is big during the evenings in Ramadan when families are assembled for big dinners to break the fast. We watched them while we visited our friends for dinner and while we couldn't understand the language, the music and the dramatic settings seemed very familiar. I've found some plot outlines to these shows in the Kuwait Times online -- and find them amusing Muslim takes on traditional soap opera themes.

In Al-Malek Farouk (King Farouk) The king eventually springs back to health where he establishes a close rapport with his Egyptian doctor. His wife meanwhile gives birth to another baby girl but this time he keeps his word and does not hassle her. Instead he goes to his wife and tells her that he is happy and that he will call her Fadya. The mother is stupefied and wonders why her husband is happy this time. The king however confides in Hasaneen that this time he is happy because he believes that it's not his wife who is responsible for thebaby's gender, but it's Allah's will.

In Al-Wazeera (The Woman Minister), Amal asks Ghalib to approach her mother with a proposal as soon as possible, but he in turn tells her that he doesn't even have a roof over his head to stay after their marriage. She tells him that they can live at her home with her parents and he agrees. She also badly wants to tell her mother about Ghalib but she doesn't know how and where to start. She then plucks up courage, approaches her mother and tells that she had had sexual relations with Ghalib whom she lovesvery much and who wants to marry her. At first her mother shouts, flies into a rage and even beats her, as she never ever expected her daughter to go that extent. But now she is left with no other choice than to agree on the marriage. was one of the wooers cavorting with his mother when she was in Palestine.