Egyptian TV Shows That Broke Societal Taboos

Although it may not seem like it, art does imitate life and sometimes, it can even affect it dramatically. Our entertainment isn’t a stranger to this either and if you’ve seen Faten Hamama’s Oreedo 7alan, you’ll know just what we mean.

But affecting life doesn’t always have to be dramatic, you know. Sometimes, our entertainment can affect our lives by simply breaking the taboo of even having the conversation in the first place.

Want some examples on this? Okay, just read up! In here, we’ve listed 5 of the Egyptian shows that broke a lot of societal taboos.

Adeyet Ra2y 3am

One of the earliest shows on this list, Adeyet Ra2y 3am was among the first shows that discussed issues like rape, the culture around it, and the troubles rape survivors face in their lives afterwards.

This show didn’t hold back its punches when it came to discussing the nature of horrible crimes and it didn’t even sugarcoat the negative reactions survivors face, like Dr. Abla’s (Yousra) husband leaving her after she insists on reporting the case because of public perception.

El-Qaserat

Yes, believe it or not, this is actually the first show to actively discuss the case of child marriages in Egypt. As prevalent as this clear-as-day problem is in our society, we’ve never had a show that discussed it openly rather than having it be a one-note often-forgotten scene.

El-Qaserat actually goes into surprising details, discussing things like child-grooming and trauma and how deeply-rooted these child marriages are in our society. And that’s only scratching the surface — as episodes go on, you see even more shocking details emerge.

Segn El-Nesa

Be honest. Before Segn El-Nesa, have you ever seen a show that accurately portrayed prison life or, you know, actually wrote the inmate characters like they were actual three-dimensional people? Yes, this is a rhetorical question.

Naturally, Segn El-Nesa doesn’t just talk about surface issues. It also delves into harsh circumstances and how some people are sometimes just victims of their hands of fate as well as discussing human nature as a whole.

El-Kaboos

Yes, it’s a little surprising to see this show here, right? Well, not really, if you think about it. In Egypt, there’s no greater taboo to discuss than how parents are sometimes the reason their kids become, well, evil.

And El-Kaboos discusses just that. In this show, we go on with Ghada Adelrazek’s character as she tries to solve her son’s murder and we see her flashbacks about how she was a parent that ruined her son by giving him too much and actively cleaning up after his own mistakes.

Ta7t El-Saytara

Okay, yeah, a lot of shows discussed drug-addiction and rehabilitation before but literally no show has ever done it right. Sans preaching, Ta7t El-Saytara discussed topics like why people fall into addiction. It actually portrayed the good, the bad, and the ugly, holding nothing back.

It also discussed rehab centers and relapses and proper methods of treatment and actively strove to humanize a group of people many (consciously or unconsciously) treated as anything but. And really how many shows try to do that?

What other TV shows would you say broke taboos?