The Muslim Culture Wars

[Typhoon]

Reuters | Turkish soap operas ignite culture war in Middle East revolution

New television shows are fanning the flames of cultural progression in the Middle East, showcasing new & radical social norms and confronting taboos considered to be punishable by death in many hardline Islamic countries. Reuters columnist David Rohde takes a look at the changing face of Arabic television in this edition of Decoder.

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Magnificent Century: Episode 1

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[English subtitles]

Suleiman the Magnificent

Have to say that I find this development far more interesting that the reams of uninformed and/or agitprop punditry coming out of the West - mainly the US.

[Hans Bulvai]

Many of the channels that show these series ( I have seen some), cut much of the raunchy stuff out.
But alcohol is not foreign to the region. Even Syrian series have shown issue that tackle alcohol, abortion, extremism and other social taboos.
They are much better than the Turkish ones in my opinion because the turkish series can drag on. If I recall correctly, the Gumus series that was so popular in the Middle East, ran for like 160 episodes. This guy was so popular that his picture was plastered on every school girl's backpack!