The Information Ministry has decided to review all television programs for content that could be seen as offensive to any Arab country.
The decision followed a hacking incident Monday that temporarily put the ministry website offline. The Moroccan hacker left a message deriding the portrayal of a Moroccan prostitute in an Egyptian series titled al-Aar (The Disgrace), currently aired on many channels. The self-proclaimed motivation of the hacker was to "take revenge for Moroccan women whose reputation was ruined in the Egyptian series."
Moroccan writers have expressed anger over what they described as the willful misrepresentation of Moroccan women in Arab screen productions.
Osama al-Sheikh, head of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU), responded by issuing strict instructions to censor all series currently broadcasting on Egyptian channels to ensure they are not degrading to women in any Arab country.
Al-Sheik said in a statement that the Egyptian Television prioritizes protecting the image of Arab women and rejects any content that could be viewed as degrading.
Renowned Moroccan writer Rachid Nini said he is angry about how Moroccan women are portrayed as sorcerers and regarded as immoral, even though they have made valuable contributions sport, science, astronomy and religion.
In his daily article in a Moroccan paper, Nini said that the first woman to establish a university in the world was a Moroccan woman named Fatimah al-Fahreyah, the first Arab woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics was the Moroccan Nawal al-Motawakkel, and the first Arab woman to reach the South Pole was the Moroccan astronomer Mariam Shadeed.ِ
In the same paper, Bushra Eigourek said that it is a disgrace that the actresses who play roles of Moroccan sorcerers and immoral characters are always well-received in Morocco.
Another Moroccan had previously hacked into the Amiri Diwan of Kuwait to protest the depiction of Moroccan women as sorcerers in a Kuwaiti cartoon. At the time, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry apologized to the Moroccan nation and the Kuwaiti Parliament called for holding the certain ministers accountable.
This is not the first time Arabs have objected to the way they are depicted in Egyptian drama. Gulf countries have issued similar complaints in the past but no action was taken to rectify the situation.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
