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Ramadan
news and notes (3):
Quran competitions on the night of nights and Metwalli still making
major waves
(cairolive.com, December 11,
2001)
Religion
Quran competitions on the night of nights
Lailat Al-Qadr, a night considered by Muslims to be of utmost spiritual
importance, falls sometime in the last ten days of Ramadan. Most
scholars have determined the true date of Lailat Al-Qadr to be the 27th
night of the holy month, which means that this year it falls between
Tuesday December 11 and Wednesday the 12th.
As always, Ramadan has meant a plethora of Quranic reading and
memorization competitions, the culmination of which will be on Lailat
Al-Qadr, when President Hosni Mubarak hands out prizes to the winners at
a ceremony to be held at the Nasr City conference center. 100 young
people from 65 nations participated in this year's competition. The
judges were from Morocco, Tunis, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and early
indicators, reports Al-Ahram, show that the lions' share of the winning
youth are Egyptian. The total value of the prizes to be given away is
LE15 million.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian youth from Fayoum also picked up the first prize
in in another international Quranic recitation and interpretation
competition -- this one in Saudi Arabia, in which 36 countries
participated.
Television
Metwalli still making major waves
The popular TV drama A'ilat Al-Hagg Metwalli continues to make waves,
with a great deal of press space and air time across the Arab world
dedicated to discussing the virtues and faults of the show. Most have
been concentrating on the show's premise of a man marrying four wives,
posing questions like, "Is it really possible from a man's point of
view?", and "Why would the women agree?" The discussions
have resulted in revelations that yes, indeed, there are women and men
out there who have absolutely no problem with polygamy. In fact, on
Dream TV on Sunday night, the young woman who plays Metwalli's fourth
wife on the show admitted that in real life, she is a "second"
wife. Why did she agree to share her husband? Because of her intense
love for him, she said.
Other commentators said that in the West, men with excess sexual
impulses end up having affairs with other women, while in the Muslim
world, they legitimize those relationships via marriage. The
commentators thus find it strange that Westerners complain of polygamy
even though it ends up protecting the rights of the women and any
possible children that result from such unions.
Amongst the most interesting things said in the press is that Metwalli
-- played by veteran actor Nour El-Sherif -- must be a heavy Viagra user
to be able to keep all his wives happy.
A cartoon by Mustafa Hussein and Ahmed Ragab in Al-Akhbar shows Metwalli
suggesting to his first wife Amina that he try to marry US National
Security chief Condoleeza Rice -- perhaps then the Americans will do
something positive for the Palestinians, the cartoon Metwalli quips.
Read Cairolive's political take on the
show here.
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