Soap operas, the cure for oppresive gender roles?

[Kuya]

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archi...1/1236952.aspx

CAIRO, Egypt – A relative newcomer to Arab TV, the Turkish soap opera "Noor" has helped narrow the gender gap between men and women across the Middle East. Women see the lead female character – the independent, aspiring fashion designer Noor -- as a role model. Meantime, her husband on the show -- the blue-eyed former model and athlete Mohannad -- has become the region’s first pin-up boy.
The nightly soap opera has mainly female viewers glued to their TV sets not only because Mohannad is a cuter version of Justin Timberlake, but because he offers something many lack in their lives: romance, tenderness and a supportive partner to his independent wife. Mohannad has become the standard against which many Arab men are being judged, much to their chagrin.

To think that oppressive gender roles in Islam could potentially be defeated by a crappy soap opera?

According to Arab newspapers, marriages in Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia have dissolved because wives insisted on putting Mohannad's picture on their mobile phone display, or on their bedroom wall. In Bahrain, a woman allegedly begged her husband to have plastic surgery to look like the actor. Another recent divorcee allegedly told her husband "I want to sleep with Mohannad one night and then die."

In Saudi Arabia, where about one in seven people tunes in each night, men circulated the rumor that Kivanc Tatlitug, the actor who plays Mohannad, is gay, which left female viewers distraught until the rumor was dispelled.

So that's why men do that... to think i didn't catch that before.

Saudi society abounds with Mohannad jokes such as this one: A Saudi woman was touring Turkey with her husband and son when her husband went missing. As she described him to the police, her son shouted, "But that's not what Daddy looks like." "Be quiet," she whispers, "They might just give me Mohannad."

[Beckwin]

That Mohannad, he's so hot right now.

[Kuya]

It just goes to show you, the answer to fight oppressive conservatism in the Middle East isn't the liberal use of bombs, but liberal TV.

[Kuya]

Forget Mohammed, we want Mohannad.

[miokomioko]

that country is going apeshit over this guy?

http://www.resimsevinci.net/data/med...tatlitug_9.jpg