By Andrew Hammond
RIYADH, Oct 1 (Reuters Life!) - If you're seeing women drivers in a futuristic Riyadh, laughing at the antics of Saudi bumpkins abroad or being reprimanded for using English slang in Arabic then you must be watching Ramadan TV in Saudi Arabia.
The holy month, when Muslims around the world fast from dawn to dusk, has traditionally provided the media with the chance to mix hilarity with serious debate on a host of social issues for Saudis glued to the television during their evening feast.
With "reform" now a buzzword in the conservative kingdom since King Abdullah ascended the throne in 2005, efforts to "better" the Saudi citizen through pithy commentaries in comedy, drama and direct lecturing have notably increased.
Saudi-owned, Dubai-based pan-Arab entertainment network MBC is the main vehicle for Saudi Ramadan television.
Self-styled preacher-in-jeans Ahmed al-Sheqeiri kicks off the evening around 6 o'clock local time (1500 GMT) with his 10-minute "Thoughts of a Youth" show, in which topics range from attacks on the trend for mixing English with spoken Arabic to pressing for Islamic technology advances to catch up the West.
"We have to admit that today English is the language of knowledge, but that doesn't mean we should forget our own mother tongue," he said recently.
In another episode, he exhorts viewers to help the Islamic world to equal or outdo the West in industrial, technological and other creative output by 2030, while praising the Proton car made in fellow Islamic country Malaysia and ruefully noting that the equipment used to film his show was made in Japan. "I hope Islamic countries can start the project for the Islamic camera!" he said.
SOCIAL REFORM
A number of shows have tried to lend a helping hand to a campaign to overturn the kingdom's informal ban on women driving. Cartoon series "Mizna and Family" showed women driving in a Riyadh-of-the-future replete with space-age skyscrapers.
The most-watched Saudi show in Ramadan, the comedy "Tash ma Tash" has provoked controversy for lampooning Islamists and liberal intellectuals. The show's popularity has not been dented by the issue of several fatwas banning viewers from watching it.
One recent episode depicted members of the conservative Islamic country's liberals as boozy bourgeois chatterboxes out of touch with reality as they discuss Marx and Engels over bottles of alcohol and heaping dishes of Arab food. As they chat, the music of the secular intellectual's chanteuse of choice, Lebanese diva Fairouz plays in the background.
But liberals were also shown as being easily susceptible to state influence.
"Tash has become a Ramadan staple. It's on the table with the food, but every year they raise the ceiling of criticism," al-Hayat newspaper commentator Saud al-Rais said of the show.
In another comedy, "Bayni wa Baynak" (Between Me and You), two country bumpkins turn the stereotype of affluent Saudis swanning around the Arab world completely on its head when they pitch up in Egypt and become so tangled up in dialect that they end up spluttering gibberish at each other.
Actor Fayez al-Maliki's character Manahi, has become a familiar figure of fun for Saudis watching huge plasma screens put up for Ramadan buffets.
Odwan al-Ahmari, who writes about Ramadan TV in al-Watan newspaper, said the social critique "Bayni wa Baynak" was far more subtle than "Tash".
In one episode, Manahi completely ignores Islamic mores and gets drunk on a plane heading to Saudi Arabia from Egypt, but then inadvertently finds himself in the role of a hypocritical zealot yelling at Egyptian women to "cover up".
"Maliki is like Mr Bean. Now people are waiting every year to see what show Manahi will be on," he said.
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