It's insane how a simple television show could change lives. The Turkish soap opera "Gumus" (meaning "silver"), more commonly known as "Noor" (meaning "light") made quite a movement in the Arab world when it first aired on the Saudi owned TV channel, MBC-4 in 2008.
Noor gave Arabs (more specifically women) unreleastic expectations - that most probably cannot be met - about love. The unnatural amount of love and affection between Noor and her husband, Muhannad, only exists in a parallel universe where police men drive pink ice-cream trucks and men understand women. And most importantly, cherish and appreciate them.
Just hearing of an insanely star-struck and Noor-obssessed Kuwaiti couple who flew off to Ankara, Turkey to have their wedding in the house where the show was filmed; "Noor's House" as they called it, makes me want to severe any ties that I have to the Arab world, and claim that I am Persian by ethnicity - they might be a bit too extreme when it comes to religious laws, but hey at least they're realistic about this world!
The storm that hit the Arab world, also known as Noor, is just embarassing, what's more embarassing is the influence it has had on households. Wives demanding "Muhannad treatment" from husbands, or husbands becoming overly jealous of Muhannad's photo being on the wallpaper of their wives' cellphones. The effects are all negatively charged disregarding what angle you look at them from.
What's even funnier is that once the show was over (sometime around September 2008), all the hype, obssession and addiction ceases to exist as well. I guess his shows just how easily influenced us Arabs are.. guided like sheep. Easy come, easy go.. Sad.
Noor gave Arabs (more specifically women) unreleastic expectations - that most probably cannot be met - about love. The unnatural amount of love and affection between Noor and her husband, Muhannad, only exists in a parallel universe where police men drive pink ice-cream trucks and men understand women. And most importantly, cherish and appreciate them.
Just hearing of an insanely star-struck and Noor-obssessed Kuwaiti couple who flew off to Ankara, Turkey to have their wedding in the house where the show was filmed; "Noor's House" as they called it, makes me want to severe any ties that I have to the Arab world, and claim that I am Persian by ethnicity - they might be a bit too extreme when it comes to religious laws, but hey at least they're realistic about this world!
The storm that hit the Arab world, also known as Noor, is just embarassing, what's more embarassing is the influence it has had on households. Wives demanding "Muhannad treatment" from husbands, or husbands becoming overly jealous of Muhannad's photo being on the wallpaper of their wives' cellphones. The effects are all negatively charged disregarding what angle you look at them from.
What's even funnier is that once the show was over (sometime around September 2008), all the hype, obssession and addiction ceases to exist as well. I guess his shows just how easily influenced us Arabs are.. guided like sheep. Easy come, easy go.. Sad.
