An anecdote I’ve heard recently startled me; one of my mother’s religious, reputable acquaintances was to be giving high-school students an average Islamic lecture, when in came a gloomy-looking teenage girl asking her to stop. With tears in her eyes, the girl politely asked her to lecture them on something more useful than hijab. Something that would have at least some impact on the misled youth that desperately need redemption. That something was a sermon on the wrongness of the controversial reality TV hit Star Academy.
Another thing I happened upon recently was a website that managed to tickle my funny bone rather than my heart and soul, as it had planned. The site was dedicated to bashing the show. Its name was even “NO2Star Academy.” After browsing it, one would assume that this “Star Academy” was an addictive noxious drug, rather than simply a TV show.
Let’s be frank. We’ve all been watching it, seen an episode or two, or (if living anywhere near the Middle East) you must have at least heard of it. We all wait for the sister publication of “Laha” magazine — “Star Academy magazine” with exhilaration. We’ve all heard the rumors emerging as a result of it, and take pride in further mongering and spreading them. Whether it is the love chains and triangles that arise in the so-called academy’s environment, or it being the not-so-decent scenes they air 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The sudden rise of the show is very strange. Exactly what, why and who is responsible for the overnight success of this show? Just what is the secret?
“There is no secret,” says 14-year-old Nouf Rashid, a fan of the show. “It’s just one of a kind. I don’t think they run shows as interesting as this one anywhere else. And I most definitely do not suppose that by watching it I will become an infidel.”
“And besides,” Nouf adds with reddening cheeks, “Khalawi is a very striking, handsome young man. He is my favorite because he’s Saudi, and I believe that it’s our patriotic duty to watch him and cheer him on.”
Patriotism isn’t as important as remaining the believer and Muslim that you are. According to a large number of educators and parents, you may be on the road to infidelity, just by watching that show. “Those scavengers and their show’s only objective is to further damage our tender youth’s intellect, understanding, and most important of all, their Islamic ethics and principles. I believe it is a clear invitation that all males strip themselves from the masculine characteristics God provided them with, transforming them into uncaring young men — especially toward the reputations of their sisters-in-Islam. They hug, kiss and cuddle with the girls on the show with them, they no longer care or have any sense of outrage toward whoever dares touch their honorable sisters,” says Umm Abdallah, a middle-aged women. “Five years ago, the show would not have been broadcast. But the enemies of Islam are watching us, aiming their weapons at our unconscious youth, until something as ungodly, sinful and profane as this has become ordinary and commonplace.”
But Dr. Abdul Aziz Saleh, a middle-aged man, believes that it just may be beneficial. “Besides all the damage it’s causing us, and despite the fact that the harm it has done prevails, there actually are a few compensations,” he claims. “First of all, it gives Arab youth the chance of getting to observe voting, to actually practice democracy. That is definitely a first here in the Arab world. It also shows a new face for Arab youth, proving that broad horizons and open minds really do exist in the Arab world. There is an Egyptian, a Saudi, a Tunisian, a Moroccan, a Syrian, and so on and so forth. But usually when there is such a combination, you would be surprised not to see people up each other’s throats. But in fact they live in harmony,” Dr. Saleh concludes.
That was the only positive reply I got from a mature man, besides the young men who constantly reminded me how good-looking and stunning the Moroccan Sophia and the Tunisian Bahaa are and how pleasurable it is just watching those two.
Bizarrely and in spite of the fact that it’s the top-rated show on prime time TV, most of the answers came close to what Fahda Abdul Mohsin said. Fahda, a 19-year-old who loves watching it, gossiping about it and even placing weekly bets on who will be eliminated each week, alleged that: “This show is, for starters, unfair. For instance we all know that Miriam’s voice is a million times more harmonious and pleasant than Sophia’s, yet who managed to hang on? I also believe in some sort of conspiracy backstage. They keep who the producers want.”
Fahda is typical of Saudi youth. They are educated, cultured, and know wrong from right, yet they still recognize that they owe it to their bodies and minds to grant them a little entertainment and don’t mind helping themselves to it. When asked if she could just watch it without being tempted to imitate the participants, Fahda replied: “Oh, no. Now that’s completely OK!”
So, while they enjoy watching it, they acknowledge that it simply isn’t right. They never in their wildest dreams considered traveling to Beirut on their lonesome without their parents’ permission, let alone joining some on-air academy. In fact, they have even benefited from it. So, regardless of the fact that Umm Abdallah may speak the truth and I’m sure all see the sense in what she says, I’m afraid we may need a quick reminder that it is, after all, just a reality TV show that apparently does not care for our offspring’s morals nearly as much as it cares for what is in their wallets. The more we warn, the more we draw attention to it. That lecture the woman gave on it is, in itself, a big endorsement for the show.
Let’s not get carried away. The way I see it, we’re blowing things way out of proportion, and maybe destroying any good it might have been trying to convey to the youth in the first place. So, before we start dragging our respected scholars into answering a couple of questions or condemning something as insipid, banal and worthless as this, let us remember that it is only a bunch of youngsters doing and enjoying what they do best; having some extreme, un-cut, rather trite, fun.
Who are we to stand in their way?
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(Farah Al-Sweel is a Saudi student. She is based in Riyadh.)
