Since her name was on the list of highly competing actors for this month of Ramadan through her courageous drama series “Sarkhat Ontha” (Female’s Scream), Egyptian actress Dalia Al Bihari was surprised to learn that her drama series was postpone till after Ramadan to be aired on television.
Postponing the series till after Ramadan might be to its advantage, since the issue that the series discusses is very sensitive. Daila doesn’t know why the decision was made to not air the series during Ramadan, since it was censored, yet critics thinks people might not accept it during the holy month since it discusses the issue of ‘changing sex’.
According to the London daily Elaph, Dalia accepted the role because she thought it was unusual and never played in Arabic drama. She thinks that it does deserve all of the escapade going on around it, she revealed that she had felt uncomfortable with the idea at first. She adds that for one reason people should come back to television; therefore new ideas should be played out in television dramas. The other reason is that Syrian drama is forcefully competing with Egyptian drama; therefore, daring ideas are always welcomed in Egyptian drama.
Dalia believes that the series will face a storm of critics, because this issue is forbidden and lots of Arab people don’t feel comfortable with it. She plays four different characters on the series ‘Afif’, ‘Afifa’, ‘Jamilah’ and the dancer. There were only two roles that she had to work hard for, which was Afif’s role since it was a man’s role she had to really work hard and pay attention to lots of men to see how they walk and their behaviors and the way they talk.
The other role that was tough on Dalia was the role of Jamilah, since she was Afif female twin. She goes into depression ever since her twin brother Afif turns into a female.
Dalia adds that the drama series is done in a serious manner and in a tragic style. Dalia never met anyone who had to change his/her sex, yet the writer gave a file of people who had done it for real.
