Posted on 03/01/2004 3:12:48 PM PST by Happy2BMe
Tuesday March 2, 05:30 AM
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Critics damned the ground-breaking dating show Al Hawa Sawa (On Air Together) as too liberal, but fans writing on Internet diary sites said it supported traditional values of limited contact before marriage.
Suitors could view the girls 24 hours a day and contact them before a possible meeting in the flat to propose marriage. In a region of 280 million Arabic speakers, such shows have huge potential audiences and provoke much public debate.
The show ended just as Arab television channel MBC said it was temporarily pulling the plug on its version of the hit reality show Big Brother after charges of "indecency" and protests in the conservative Gulf state of Bahrain where it was produced. Big Brother is to be relaunched from another location.
Big Brother showed six men and six women living in the same villa, flouting traditional values in Arab societies that require the segregation of unmarried men and women.
Viewers of Al Hawa Sawa suspected in January that three of the eight girls from around the Arab world taking part in the show were secretly smoking, flouting a ban on cigarettes and alcohol in the luxury Beirut apartment they moved into in December.
"Hey -- they are human. We all have our demons," one online diarist who gave his name as H. Qureshi said. "It's not a shocking thing for me. I feel sorry and sad for these ladies. They are living a hypocritical lifestyle."
The show ended early on Monday morning when one of the last two contestants dropped a bombshell on-air, saying she refused to get married. She then locked herself in a bedroom until she was flown back to her native Algeria.
"Believe me, I do not want to get married. Please, please -- I'm not feeling right. They will know the reason in the media when I get out -- I'm going to talk," emotional 21-year-old Aicha Gerbas told the camera minutes before the finale.
Gerbas had earlier agreed to marry Hossam, an Egyptian who was sitting in the living-room next door to the "truth room" where Gerbas shocked viewers with her sudden change of heart.
INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR
"This is completely inappropriate behavior," the show's "voice" responded. The Arab channel MBC, which ran the show, declined to comment on the incident.
"Aicha has made fools of you all!" one viewer gloated in a text message that trawled across the bottom of the screen.
The show saw another hiccup earlier in the week when Lebanese authorities unexpectedly turned back the suitor Hossam at Beirut airport, refusing to grant him a tourist visa.
"One wonders why the production company doesn't stop the show with all the problems it's facing," the Lebanese paper Assafir wrote recently after some contestants who had left complained of boredom and jealousy.
Minutes after Gerbas's bombshell, the viewers' vote chose Mervat Fo'ani from Lebanon as the "Bride of On Air Together," sending her with her chosen suitor on a honeymoon to Malaysia, where conservative Islamic values are also strong.
Wives for sale - cheap - Allah certified women HERE!
Nope. The Dems pull this trick out at least every four years.
THIS was the pic that pushed them over the edge ...barf alert!
A singularly poor choice of words when dealing with any aspect of Muslim "culture." Now if the "prize" was a chance to stone the women to death instead of marrying them, the show would be a hit with the critics.
8:00 - My 33 Sons
8:30 - Osama Knows Best 9:00 - I Dream of Mohammed
9:30 - Let's Mecca Deal 10:00 - The Kuwaiti Hillbillies
MONDAY: 8:00 - Husseinfeld
9:00 - Mad About Everything 9:30 - Monday Night Stoning
10:00 - Win Bin Laden's Money 10:30 - Allah McBeal
TUESDAY: 8:00 - Wheel of Terror
8:30 - The Price Is Right If Osama Says It's Right 9:00 - Children are Forbidden from Saying the Darndest Things
9:30 - Taliban's Wackiest Public Execution Bloopers 10:00 - Buffy the Yankee Slayer
WEDNESDAY: 8:00 - Beat the Press
8:30 - When Kurds Attack 9:00 - Two Guys, a Girl, and Pita Bread
9:30 - Just Shoot Everyone 10:00 - Veilwatch
THURSDAY: 8:00 - Fatima Loves Chachi
8:30 - M*U*S*T*A*S*H 9:00 - Veronica's Closet Full of Long, Black,Shapeless Dresses and Veils
9:30 - Married With 139 Children 10:00 - Eye for an Eye Witness News
FRIDAY: 8:00 - Judge Saddam
8:30 - Suddenly Sanctions 9:00 - Who Wants to Marry a Terrorist Millionaire?
9:30 - Cave and Garden Television 10:00 - No-Witness News
SATURDAY: 8:00 - Spongebob Squareturban
8:30 - Who's Koran Is It Anyway?
9:00 - Teletalibans
10:30 - Camel 54, Where Are You?
LOL ! ...
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Attempts were made to interview the brides but none would respond to any questions on the show.
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