Right before its airing, which is scheduled for the coming holy month of Ramadan, the Egyptian General Prosecution has begun investigating a complaint against the cast and crew of the new television drama "Mazaj Khair" (Good Mood) starring Egyptian actors Mustafa Shabaan, Ola Ghanem and Durra. The accusasion of insulting the sanctity of the holy month of Ramadan is due to some the scenes featured in the drama.
The complaint was filed by head of the Cairo Law Studies Institute, Prof. Ahmad Mahran. Mahran stated that foul language is used in the drama in addition to the use of drugs and inappropriate scenes that are considered very insulting to women.
Mahran said that the producing company has spent large sums of money in order to produce a drama that distracts people from the teachings of the holy month of Ramadan and goes against all its teachings.
According to the Middle East news portal Elaph, Mahran has demanded that the airing of the drama be postponed until a time after the holy month as a sign of respect to the sanctity of Ramadan. It was added that the drama in no way portrays the reality of society and aims at corrupting the teachings of one of the five pillars of Islam 'Fasting' and occupying people with nonsense.
It is not known what Mahran is basing his accusations on, especially since the drama has not yet been aired and only commercials featuring screen shots to promote it are being aired on the satellite channel Al Mihwar. The commercials are said to be like those of any other drama that are about crimes, dancing and drugs that have aired during the holy month in the past years.
The complaint by Mahran is said to be unjustified by many for the reasons that it is not the role of people to file complaints about works on television they do not approve of when they can merely change the channel. Also, since the Egyptian General Prosecution has nothing to do with what is aired on television or on the big screen, it is the role of the Egyptian Censorship Committee to decide what is and what is not permitted to be aired during the holy month.
