{"id":29,"date":"2008-09-12T13:58:57","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T13:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/09\/a-couch-potato-ramadan.html"},"modified":"2008-09-12T13:58:57","modified_gmt":"2008-09-12T13:58:57","slug":"a-couch-potato-ramadan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/09\/a-couch-potato-ramadan.html","title":{"rendered":"a couch potato Ramadan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lighter side of Ramadan in the Arab world – soap operas<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Ramadan translates into big bucks for Arab satellite channels.
\nMillions of dollars are spent on special programming, much of it
\ncomparable to Western soap operas, to entertain the masses during their
\nsunrise-to-sunset fasts.<\/p>\n

One program, the popular Syrian
\nproduction “Baab El-Hara” — “The Neighborhood Gate” — offers high
\ndrama focused on a family feud. A man and his pregnant wife are
\nseparated as their mothers fight it out, with each mother-in-law trying
\nto teach the other a lesson.<\/p>\n

The woman misses her husband and
\nwants to go back to him. The husband kisses his mother’s hand and
\npromises her he’ll do only what she wants.<\/p>\n

The soaps showcase
\nsocial traditions mixed with melodramatic characters and enough twists
\nand turns of events to last the entire month of fasting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lighter side of Ramadan in the Arab world – soap operas: Ramadan translates into big bucks for Arab satellite channels. Millions of dollars are spent on special programming, much of it comparable to Western soap operas, to entertain the masses during their sunrise-to-sunset fasts. One program, the popular Syrian production “Baab El-Hara” — “The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[81,46],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dour-mullah","tag-arab-media","tag-ramadan"],"yoast_head":"\na couch potato Ramadan - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"a couch potato Ramadan - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The lighter side of Ramadan in the Arab world – soap operas: Ramadan translates into big bucks for Arab satellite channels. Millions of dollars are spent on special programming, much of it comparable to Western soap operas, to entertain the masses during their sunrise-to-sunset fasts. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}