DUBAI, 2 February 2007 — Siham or, as people call her, Umm Raffat, is a typical Arab housewife in her mid-50s, except for one thing: She has had a rather distinct career as a professional game show contestant.
“I took up contest-hunting as a profession,” said Umm Raffat, who described the thrill she got from winning her first contest years ago on a local radio station in Gaza. “I won a small amount of money but it was enough for me to fall in love with the challenge.”
Umm Raffat is one of those rare people blessed with eidetic memory, also known as “total recall” memory. People with this natural ability have a heightened state of mental recall and can easily remember everything they read. (Mozart is thought to have had an auditory form of eidetic memory based on his ability to transcribe musical scores from memory after hearing them once.)
This walking encyclopedia, who lives in Abu Dhabi with her family, managed to hedge her natural talent to win prizes on various game shows. Among her prizes include a boat, a car, a bedroom set, and a $16,000 wristwatch. She walked away from the Gulf version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” with nearly $67,000. She says her winnings have helped support and educate her 12 children. “My victories have literally put my kids through college,” she said.
Umm Raffat says she became aware of her natural skill as she was growing up in the 1950s in Palestine. By the time she moved to the UAE with her husband in the 1980s, she had already won a few contests, mostly on radio.
In the early 1990s, Umm Raffat participated in a famous TV quiz contests called “Q and A”. “The announcer of the program had written a 20-volume book of general questions, which I had memorized,” she said.
Having eidetic memory isn’t enough, though. The vessel may be large, but it needs to be filled. Umm Raffat said winning these shows requires her to read a lot. “I spend most of my time reading,” she said.
Eventually, game show producers caught on to Umm Raffat’s distinct ability. As a result of the publicity she has attracted, she has a hard time getting onto game shows these days. “Being famous became like a curse because TV shows refused to have me on, thinking that I am guaranteed to walk away with the grand prize,” she said.
But this blacklisting hasn’t kept Umm Raffat off the air completely. In the show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” contestants have an opportunity to call somebody they know if they don’t know the answer. Contestants on the program have made a habit of calling Umm Raffat.
“I started receiving calls from people that I didn’t know but I always answer their questions,” she said with a smile. She says she hasn’t profited from helping out these contestants. “I just couldn’t refuse them.”
Eventually, producers of the game show prohibited contestants from calling on Umm Raffat.
Reading, coupled with her talent for recall has also given her a nice side business: She writes general knowledge books that are published locally in Arabic.
Many people, especially those who are entering contests started buying her books. “I have sold many books especially during book fairs around the Arab world,” she said.
In one instance, producers refused to let her on the game show because they were using her trivia books to create the questions for the contest.
Despite the notoriety, Umm Raffat is persistent. You might see her on future game shows participating under the name of one of her children.
