AMMAN — A television show that was scheduled to air
during Ramadan on Jordan TV was abruptly vetoed ahead of airing, causing a
social media uproar.
اضافة اعلان
In an unexpected move, the station’s management decided
to cancel a show called “Oum Al Darahem” at the beginning of the holy month of
Ramadan, despite having begun promoting it on social media shortly before. The TV’s management accused the show of
encouraging political turmoil through its content, producers told Jordan
News.
Director of the show, Garo Arard, said, “I was extremely
surprised when I heard the accusations. None of these accusations is close to
the truth.”
The plot of the show revolves around a greedy village
mukhtar (village chief) who takes advantage of the villagers to steal their
money and force them to sell their property. After the mukhtar is exposed by
the citizens, a new one is elected, and the former one revolts, attempting to
reclaim the powers taken from him with all his might.
“We worked so hard on this show,” Arard said. “They took
all of our hard work and just threw it away, even after promoting the show for
almost 12 days straight. You can’t just promote a show and then decide it’s
unsuitable for display.”
The ban enraged a large number of Jordanians who opposed
the decision. Many people took to social media to defend the show and its
stars, and to demand that the show broadcasts before the end of Ramadan. Some
expressed their thoughts through comments on a live video aired on Facebook by
Sari Alasa’ad, a lead actor in the show, in which he expressed his outrage and
disappointment towards all Jordanian Television authorities that allowed this
to happen.
“We were on a mission to spread light comedy in these
hard times,” Sari Alasa’d told Jordan News. “They had no right to shower the
show with malicious accusations.”
Alas’ad is not only a lead actor, but also the former
President of Jordan Artists Union, and has appeared in nearly 50 productions.
He claims that none of his other shows caused him any problems when they were
broadcast, and that none of them were ever offensive. He also stressed that he
“would never have a hand in anything that could harm or offensive the nation
and the establishment” and that he has “the utmost respect for art and acting,
and would never mix them with such malicious ideas.”
“Drama has always been about reflecting the reality of
life,” he added. “You can’t take one aspect of life and interpret it in a wrong
way then expect someone else to agree.”
The show’s production began last year. It was set to air
exclusively on Jordan Television until it was banned this week. “We had to work
on the show during very hard and dark times in the pandemic, only to be
rewarded with suspicion and financial losses,” Alas’ad said.
The show’s author, Zaki Mardini, also had something to
say about the ban. He expressed himself on Facebook, writing, “We are ruled by
silence.”
Despite the outrage of the cast, executives, producers,
and even fans on social media, Jordanian Television has not reconsidered its
decision to air the show and has not responded to a request for comment. The
only information they offered to the public was that the work was rejected by two
committees after the TV management provided the director with 38 comments about
the show, all of which were linked to the work’s political suggestions and
content.
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