Egypt’s Women’s Council releases report evaluating women portrayal in Ramadan series

A special committee assigned by the National Council for Women has released its first of two reports evaluating the portrayal of women in this year’s Ramadan television series.

Headed by Suzane El-Qeleiny, the committee stems from the media branch of the the National Council for Women, and works in cooperation with students of Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Media.

The committee is tasked with surveying the image of women in this year’s Ramadan series through analysing the content of the different productions and producing two reports during the course of the month.

The mid-month report states that, “The dancer, the call girl, the psychologically ill, the divorcee who steals another woman’s husband, and the working woman who is unsuccessful in her family life are the most notable portrayals of women in the 2016 Ramadan series.”

The report’s aim is to point out possible indicators for further analysis of the portrayal of women on television and to publicly announce the results of the evaluation and give recommendations.

Additionally, the committee will announce the best Ramadan series which best portrayed women towards the end of Ramadan.

According to Al-Ahram Arabic website, El-Qeleiny told press that the committee has come up with some general indicators that suggest that 52% of women have been portrayed negatively in this year’s Ramadan series, while positive portrayals reached 46.6% and 1% were neutral.

The report listed the series with the most negative portrayals of women. Among them are Fawq Mostawa El-Shobohat (Above Reproach), Abo El-Banat (Father of the Girls), El-Khanka (A Psychiatric Clinic), Banat Superman (Superman’s Daughters), El-Ostoora (The Legend), Azmet Nasab (Lineage Crisis), El-Keif (The State of Mind), Sad Rad (Repel Response), and El-Khoroog (The Exit).

It also notes that many of the series focus on the psychological problems of women, most notably the series Seqout Hor (Free Fall), Heya w Da Vinci (She and Da Vinci), Nelly w Sherihan (Nelly and Sherihan), and El-Moghany (The Singer).

The report also noted that family discord was another top subject of this years’ series, with many focusing on different forms of violence perpetrated against women-including verbal abuse, physical abuse or even both-as well as moral assaults and punitive behavior from a woman’s family, husband, or society.

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