Files

Egyptian soap operas offered us a hefty meal of major and recurring women’s issues this year, ranging from surrogacy to the same old marital infidelities. The shows treat these issues that revolve around women’s lives and rights in sometimes clever, sometimes unjust ways.

The series Fallujah, Part Two of which was broadcast on Tunisian channel Elhiwar Ettounsi, answers outstanding questions from Part One such as the outcome of the case of the rape of the minor student Rahma.

The series Wlad Badia (Badia’s Sons) is the talk of the town this month of Ramadan. The song Fahat Rihat al-Baroud (The Smell of Gunpowder), which plays during multiple scenes, has gone viral, and two of Sukkar’s iconic lines - “it’s not my business,” “I don’t care” - can now be heard randomly on the street and in restaurants.

The image of the Algerian woman in Ramadan productions has this year been reduced to the “legendary slap” an actress received, a narrative reinforced by the harassment several women on the street endured from the hidden camera crew.

Since the first episodes of the series Wlad Badia (Badia’s Sons) started airing, female roles emerged clear and strong, breaking away from the stereotypical portrayal of women.

During the first half of the month of Ramadan, the series Neama al-Avocato (Neama the Lawyer) made it to the list of the most-watched shows on multiple viewing platforms.

This dossier, encompassing the words, reports, and articles of Mediterranean feminist journalists who live either on the front lines of armed conflict or nearby, intends to give a face, a name, and flesh to all the women who fight to maintain their dignity in situations of extreme violence.

The documentary by Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab, screened at the 27/20 Festival in Tunis, shook the public. What do these images and voices, captured in 1973, tell us?

Dr. Alice Rothchild, a retired American obstetrician-gynecologist and committed feminist, has been a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause for many years. Now a writer and filmmaker, her convictions are reflected in her many books. Her sensitivity and experience give her a certain finesse in bearing witness to the situation of women in the Gaza Strip.

For several years, Algerian feminists have been undertaking the effort to reclaim the histories of the women of their country. Because after independence in 1962, the official version of History only recorded a few iconic faces of the martyrs that fell in the war of liberation.