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Creative compromise: Syrian television makers between Secularism and Islamism

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Abstract

Dramatic television serials produced in Syria reach vast audiences in the Arab world and beyond, via a growing number of pan-Arab satellite stations owned by wealthy, religiously conservative Gulf Cooperation Council states and citizens. Drama creators must now accommodate new markets and numerous censors. Privatization and the rise of a star system have spurred transformations within the industry that reflect the wider social and political context. The demise of Ba‘th socialism, the failures of nationalism, and the growing strength of Islamism affect both production and consumption of television programs, and transform relations within the industry. This paper explores how the television drama industry both accommodates and resists the Islamist currents that seek to provide alternatives to discredited nationalist and socialist projects.

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Notes

  1. The folklorization and aestheticization of religion was a cultural strategy common in socialist contexts (Vertovec 2001; Peyrouse 2004).

  2. This gradual, sporadic process involves a weakening of the Ba‘th Party, limited private enterprise, and relatively greater freedom of expression. Licensing remains strictly controlled. Private news media (radio stations, newspapers and magazines) have appeared, but many of these are owned by individuals linked to the regime. Television drama production companies, who produce fictional media, often for foreign—GCC-owned—outlets, have proliferated somewhat more freely.

  3. A New York Times photograph of an Akhdam community in Yemen—arguably the poorest of the Arab poor—featured three satellite dishes on a few square feet of rooftop (Worth 2008).

  4. Rami Omran, Syrian advertising agent, personal communication, January 13, 2007.

  5. Interview with the author July 19, 2006.

  6. For a discussion of Islamism in the Egyptian media, see Abu-Lughod 2006.

  7. Interview with the author December 27, 2006.

  8. The series refers, but does not name, the Qubaisiyat movement, a network of home based prayer groups founded by Sheikha Munira al-Qubaisi.

  9. Takfir refers to a practice of declaring fellow Muslims apostates. It has become associated with extremist Islamism, most notoriously in recent years, the Al-Qaida network.

  10. Interview with the author January 7, 2007.

  11. See Shoup 2005 for a detailed discussion of Andalusian series.

  12. I am grateful to Mandana Limbert for this observation.

  13. For more on Spotlight, see Dick 2007.

  14. For a more detailed discussion of The Silk Market, see Kawakibi 1997.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks Karin van Nieuwkerk and an anonymous reviewer for insightful comments and suggestions.

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  1. Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, NY, 10468-1589, USA

    Christa Salamandra

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  1. Christa Salamandra
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Correspondence to Christa Salamandra.

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Salamandra, C. Creative compromise: Syrian television makers between Secularism and Islamism. Cont Islam 2, 177–189 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-008-0060-0

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