The satirical Saudi TV series “Tash Ma Tash” has taken a step forward by tackling different social issues and presenting them in minute detail. This enables us to see the flaws and shortcomings of our society. The element of comedy is appealing while at the same time, it is used to point out not only the defects but what causes them as well.
Social criticism, when it is well done, is positive. Ideally it makes us stop, look at ourselves and think critically about what we see. Constructive social criticism points out contradictions and faults and encourages us to deal with them and improve the community we live in. Our Saudi society, however, is not used to criticism and tends to take the position that any kind of analysis or criticism is an attempt to defame and offend. This idea itself is an ailment that needs treatment and over time, perhaps it will fade away — or at best, its worst symptoms will.
Some voices have called for the annual “Tash Ma Tash” series to be banned. They want to do away with the series because it reveals the community’s deficiencies and brings into the open what is normally hidden. The voices maintain that the series offends society, religion and certain groups. I believe that these are just excuses being used to push the critics to reach a conclusion that the voices desire. When criticism is reasonable, it causes no problems and should not drive us to anger and fury with others.
Those who criticize “Tash Ma Tash” have every right to express their opinions, whatever those opinions are. It is any viewer’s right to speak his mind about what he sees and hears. The problem, however, comes when one opinion — which may be right or may be wrong — is suddenly accepted as a truth and imposed on others who do not share it.
If we examine the episode entitled “Sour Al Hareem” (The Women’s Fence), we will immediately recognize that it’s an imaginary idea and that whatever behavior and whatever attitudes are presented are done with cynical exaggeration. The exaggeration is necessary so that men who take it upon themselves to control women and deny them their rights will realize the extent of the problem and the validity of the criticism.
The episode’s message was that oppressing women does not stop at a certain point. It may begin by simply separating the sexes and end by treating the two as totally different creatures with one being superior to the other.
The way women are abused and the belief that they are the source of vice will push relations between the two sexes to the animal level.
Men come to look at women as the object of their lust and desires and feel that women have no function beyond serving and satisfying them. The episode was an alarm bell, warning us of the danger to our society because of this harsh social isolation that has spread in the past few years.
In earlier times — when our grandparents were young, for example — there was no such rigid separation and men and women, while following the teachings of Islam, lived much more relaxed lives. If we look closely at the divorce rate and the marital problems in our society, we should feel sufficiently disturbed to seek some answers.
The prevalence of these problems indicates critical dysfunction in relations between a husband and his wife. Society seems to play a very important role in having established a system based only on physical love. The woman suffers a great deal from having her emotions neglected; she is often left a victim of pain — physical as well as psychological. Women often feel that no one understands their needs or identifies with them. The reason is the social isolation that makes each sex look at the other as an object. The man believes that the woman is available for physical pleasure and that he is free to use her as he wishes and then throw her aside and replace her. The woman is also guilty of treating the man wrongly. She looks into his pockets to see how much money is there; thus she knows what she can ask for and what she cannot. Our society teaches her to get maximum use from her husband’s money and assets because he may leave her at any time. Fearing the future and worrying about it are the two uncertainties that women have to live with and that may compel her to act negatively and perhaps, in so doing, to destroy instead of strengthen family ties.
“Tash Ma Tash” also presents other domestic problems showing how husbands neglect their wives and look for other women to fill up their lives.
Some husbands and wives look at strangers and see appealing and tempting characteristics that their partners do not possess. This is rooted in both social and family teachings which are fed by imagination because the couple has grown distant from one another and is drifting further apart. The woman daydreams and imagines an exceptional personality and character in her future husband; when she marries, however, she finds that he is just an ordinary human.
The problem begins at that point and increases since, in her mind, she is still looking for the knight in shining armor.
The man of course is undergoing a similar experience in searching for what he imagines to be the ideal wife. This lack of connection with reality results inevitably in family destruction, a rise in divorce and many of the psychological problems we see in our society today.
— Dr. Maha Al-Hujailan is a medical researcher at King Khaled University Hospital in Riyadh. She can be contacted at [email protected]
