In a move that took everyone by surprise, Mr. Abbas El-Noury star of Bab El-Harra blew a bombshell, describing those who critiqued the Series (in addition to that some of them follows some exterior orders!) by having a boss-eyed reading oft it! Confirming that: "women, even cultured women, wish to be in Souad's shoes on the humane side of her at least" according to the interview made by syrianews website.
Mr. El-Noury hasn't hesitated to confirm that the show hasn't been unfair to women, and the evidence is that Abou Esam was the one to "get out of the house" when the divorce happened and not Souad!!! and confirming that the show wasn't documentary, and that the series folds under showing the "civilian status" instead of embodying the "village fact" the writer has depended on so far!
Actually we can't envy Mr. Abbas for his statements. Because the only thing it did is removing the cover we were trying to shed on him by marking the writer and director responsible. However Mr. Abbas insisted on being responsible himself. And that actually requires a lot of courage, even if that courage is based on a very shallow angle, the viewers rate. We don't know if Mr. Abbas wishes he had been on the cast of Dallas, the most Show in American History in terms of the viewers rate! Or wishes he belonged to those dark thoughts that caused their believers to kill or get killed!
Then we are forced to answer what he said, and saying that we're boss-eyed, or that we have a boss-eyed reading of the show is not among the things we will answer. Cause being cross-eyed has never been a shame, especially when "normal sight" is disfiguring reality and promoting darkness, domestic violence, and tribal binds built on silliness, shallowness, and male-dominance thoughts.
We're not so sure that women want to be like Souad. But we doubt that the women Mr. Abbas knows, works with, or lives with are this way! We probably all know that they all "can" live that kind of life had they wanted that. So can we hope ,in these busy days of interviews based on the superficial success of the show, that you'd clarify why don't they do that?! Are they afraid of some "cross-eyed" events? But there are other women, those we live with, wives, relatives, sisters, colleagues, Etc… who "unfortunately" clearly refuse for their humanity to be crushes as Bab al-Harra did.
Maybe you even knew, or read, that even those who honored the Series, with all the mysterious circumstances rounding this honoring, and what had been said about it and its reasons, even those had no way out of referring to the "bad image the show represented of the Syrian women in that time, and the lack of reality in that image"!
Maybe its good to remind that these criticism wasn't because the show had shallow empty women, but because those were the only type of women it had, and because the show hasn't critiqued them in any way, we even see that the course of the show confirmed that having that type of women in what makes life good and pretty. The criticism came also from the fact that every "knot" in the series was solved serving Men and their ways of action, all the "knots" leaded to a humble return of women to their males, all the knots confirmed that women are always wrong and men are who leads the way of life against women's silliness and stupidity! And that means for those who knows how to watch drama, not to mention those who knows how to read it, that this is the natural status things should be at. Especially that this point was tied directly to masculinity which came out victorious in everything: It triumphed in the national independent case which was originally under-appreciated in the show. It also triumphed in the neighborhood's re-union which is an absolute approval of what the "great" Abou Esam did. It triumphed in approving all Abou Esam's behavior in terms of marriages, divorces, fights, and disputes. It triumphed in confirming that "slicing women's throats over the sewer-hole", swearing them, and excluding them makes a new world of men that are all stick-together honest great heroes. That means the exact opposite of the "civilian" status that sais the human beings meeting on the bases of equal rights and equal duties, citizen-ship in short, is what makes the "civilization status" Mr. Noury played on, in a clear vivid sign to the civilian difference between City and Country. And on this, we have to say that some women do want to live like Souad, but, for Mr. Noury's record, those women are living in a much greater state of injustice and brutality that made them see the show's injustice a heaven compared with there reality. And I don't think you'd be happy to know that "slicing throats on sewer-holes" is still surrounding their lives. And that the show has contributed, whether you like it or not, in pushing towards the promotion of this kind of sexist crimes. We don't know if you had enough time to think that bamboo sticks were sold out twice from Al-Hamedia market!
And that a lot of young boys are now holding those sticks threatening their sisters and female school-mates! We say that hoping that you won't come out after a while to say that this is "extra proof of the show's success"! Cause we never disagreed with you on its "success". What we disagreed on is that that success was built on promoting repressing, violating, and excluding women! Which means that it was built on a clear sexist distinction! We also don't know how Mr. Abbas was able to refer to "Damascus, you smile of sadness" that remarkable novel that really captured what I said. But the major difference between the novel and your show, is that the novel put all those acts in their field of clashing with humane values, the need for improvement, civilization, and even religious wills. While your show put them in the field of wanted, needed, correct, and right! And it was you who confirmed that in your interview, in case anybody had doubts to what the show promoted in that field! What difference between the stars of Edleby and the dust of "Al-Bab Al-Aswad"!.
The defense of "history" is just a ridiculous justification. And that's the reason Mr. Abbas found it so easy to accuse the show writer of all those accusations, and we won't intervene in the dispute between the "hero of acting" and the "hero of writing", we will just wonder what historical references was the show writer, or writers whoever they are, based on in approaching that history? Without disregarding a sign Mr. Abbas wouldn't disregard: if we wanted history as it was, then we wouldn't be needing your efforts nor your existence as an actor. We were always ,and we still are, capable of reading history books, and imagining it. Drama wan never a copy of history, rather to be a disfigured copy! But it is a reading of it. And ,on that base, Bab Al-Harra was nothing but a reading of that history ,no matter what we say or what you say. And among the things we say is that that reading was unfair to a far extend, cause it disfigured the history. And that it was dark to a far extend cause it promoted that disfiguring, and encouraged doing it today as a high valued correct values!
We don't know, if you are so sure that women "were like that", and that they are a role model (by saying that cultured women wish to be them or like them!!!) , then maybe you can explain to us, in any way you like, who it is who raised those men who leaded the continuous revolutions in Syria? Who gave birth and raised those great men of Arabic renaissance?! Who gave birth to politicians and economists?! Head ministers and army leaders?! All those in the political parties from extreme left to extreme right?!
Your answer was crystal clear: It was bamboo sticks, slicing throats on sewer-holes, curses, divorces, behind-the-back talking, stupidity, and shallowness that gave birth to them! Isn't that what "Bab Al-Harra" established?!
Of course, we'd like to thank your civilized vision Mr. Noury, when you confirmed Abou Esam's greatness, generosity, nobility, modesty, and supremacy … Cause he went out of the house instead for the woman Souad! Disregarding "the woman" Souad left the house too, No, she was forced out of it without taking a thing with her! It's actually a great deal of generosity! What could women possibly want more? What more demands could that low form-of-life have more than for her "Master" the male to go out of the house for a while before throwing her out like a limp dog?! What more respect for the womb that gave him, and his children after him, birth does she expect? What more value to give for the person who spent her lifetime feeding, nursing, respecting, loving, nursing, and looking after you? Here, of course, we neglected mentioning any "cross-eyed thoughts" like the women who learned and taught, who worked and produced, wrote and thought, created and thought, who leaded and worked in politics! Or originally the woman who is a citizen, a human, who have my and your rights and duties. Cause all those thoughts could only come out from people who "needs therapy" ( Thanks for using the first person group form!). We only mentioned the standard description of women used by the "great men of Bab Al-Harra"!
Women, Mr. Noury, are now, and have been for 1000years, human beings as we men are. And they have the same rights and duties we have. And when we practice any distinction in that area, then we are demeaning our humanity in the first place, and transforming, depending on how far we go in that distinction, to something less than human.
When we promote such distinctive culture, then the least that could be done, or at least that we hoped could be done by the elite actors and actresses who "achieved" this show, is for them to review themselves to what they've done. All the wrong sexist shallow values they promoted, intentionally or accidentally. And to hope they'll pass on that on other times. But, obviously, Mr. Noury pulled himself out of this circle with those statements, confirming to us that he has those wrong values promoted by that shameful Show.
As to the opposing between the "civilian state" and the country fact, there lays the true joke! Do you really believe, Mr. Abbas, that that neighborhood (Harra) or any other one in Damascus or any other city was ever civilian?! O.K. then, allow us to tell you that no civilization rises on considering some of its members, rather half of them, as lower forms of life! There's no civilization with such clear breach to human rights which is the extract of humanity's class in terms of high values till this time. There's no civilization with the existence of a divorce where one party has the ultimate right, no matter what Ideology or thoughts stands before that divorce. Nor with 24/7 violence against women and children, till they become disfigured clones of the older males, and the older women, all under the allegation of parenting and good raising and Etc… ! There's no civilization where one color rules, that color can't be anything but black cause it's one and lonely!
Also, in the simple public logic, there's no civilization where the stick's culture rules, we can say that such place is exactly "country". And country isn't what lies outside the administrative borders of the city, or lies in a valley instead of a mountain! What's in the country is exactly basing on the retarded blood bind, and disgusting male power, as basic standards instead of citizenship. That's why you're absolutely right in objecting the wave of "country-ism" which ruled Syrian and Arabic drama, however your (Harra) belongs to civilization no more than a grocery store belongs to Microsoft. Which means that it's one with the same things you critiqued. Civilization is where equal fair relationships rule members of the society, and its members rely on mind, creativity, and respect instead of Bamboo, curses, spanking, and "cross doorsteps on husband's back"!!!
Finally we want to tell you that the last thing we expected from you is you hinting, or stating?, that: "I feel sorry that those who hold pens don't respect people, they write anything, for the person who writes about an economic phenomenon is the same one to write about tomato and traffic police, the same to interview managers. That of course if he hasn't received dictations to write on his dictators mind, why then does he have to barge his personal mood and slogans such as freedom"!! We never wanted to hear these words from you, with all your old experience which isn't demeaned by criticism, whatever you wanted to call it: building or demolishing criticism (marking that this distinction is what political parties do, those you confirmed them to be all liars!!!), and certainly criticism doesn't under-estimate your person (as personal as the words you said are!). And we can only say here Mr. Abbas: If you stopped a bit and thought, you'd find that most of the praising in our country, in the world, even in the world's history, is what comes our of "dictations"! While harsh, opposing, demolishing criticism is what actually pours out of people's pain and hope of a better reality. So we hope you'd excuse us this time.
Bassam Al-Kadi, 12/11/2007, (What the cross-eyed-freaks say to Abbas El-Noury)
Translated by: Nawar El-Sabaa