It’s no secret that a lot of our pop culture moments are portrayed in a bad way. No, seriously. Take any movie or TV show you used to love way back in the day and watch it again and you’ll be surprised at how problematic it actually is.
Take the love stories we’ve seen on our shows and movies for example. As wholesome as they were then, you wouldn’t believe how stalking and obsession-friendly they actually are!
Khaled and Rania from El-7ob El-Awal
Picture this. Khaled is playing pool with his friend and runs into Rania, a stranger who he thinks is attractive. What Khaled does next is wild because five seconds later, he tells his friend that he’s in love with her. You know, the girl whose name he barely knows.
And so, Khaled (with his friend) decides to find out where Rania lives, flattens her tires, and basically stays out there until the girl comes out so they can go out. Yeah.
Tarek and Sarah from Zarf Tarek
We’re aware, you know. You’re going to say this type of stalking was done in the spirit of professionalism and all that jazz. But consider this. Tarek already knew this was illegal and unethical.
And when he finds Sara, he’s so enamored he fakes an identity, dates her, and never once thinks about telling her about Fady — aka the guy hunting her down for dubious purposes. Honestly, it just goes from bad to worse.
Merit and Hanteera from Saye3 Ba7r
Speaking of being enamored, Hanteera in Saye3 Ba7r is in love with a presumably-Greek girl and spends his mornings shouting in Greek at her balcony.
Occasionally, he also follows her around, you know, without any idea of who she actually is as a person. And this story does not actually end with a restraining order. No, it ends with an engagement that turns into a breakup shouting match.
Baheeg and Leila from Teer Enta
This one’s a bit of a technicality because in the real timeline, there isn’t any “real” stalking. However, that doesn’t mean Baheeg did not use magic and a jinn friend to try to “win over” Leila across different realities.
And guess what? Every time he fails because the girl just doesn’t see him that way, he tries and tries again. And he would have probably kept that loop going if the chances didn’t run out.
Taheya and Abbas
Okay, so this one isn’t technically stalking rather than obsession. As in, that stage just before stalking. And this is honestly indisputable — Abbas was borderline obsessed with an older woman and set his sights on marrying her.
And not only that. His obsession with her escalated to the point where he rewrote her as he saw fit in a play about her life. You can say yikes now.
