Page 221 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

The “little fazzura” described below is from Ramadan in 1990. It was spon-
sored by the Nasr Company for Consumer Chemicals. Judging from the com-
pany’s product line—insecticides, detergents, and cheap perfumes—the pre-
sumed audience was broad, and probably of modest means. The program was
hosted by Fayza Hasan, a cheerful woman wearing Western clothes, who was
reminiscent of the cartoon announcer “Sonya” quoted at the beginning of the
chapter. Her appearance, like almost all female television announcers, contrasts
sharply to the substantial majority of middle-class Egyptian women who wear
the neo-Islamic hijab. Ms. Hasan began the program as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen, happy holidays. The Nasr Company for Consumer Chemi-
cals gives you its best wishes for the blessed month of Ramadan. The company pre-
sents to you each day of the month after the Arabic musalsal [dramatic serial] cari-
cature riddles. The Nasr Company for Consumer Chemicals offers valuable prizes:
—Hajj and Umra tickets
—A color television
—A full automatic washing machine
—A four-burner stove
—Ten bicycles
—Five tape players
—100 prizes from the products of the Nasr Company for Consumer Chemicals
Before we tell you the riddle we’ll see it together in a caricature. Pay close attention,
because the solution to the riddle is contained in the drawing.
Then comes a series of cartoons which the audience sees being drawn in fast
motion, punctuated by shots of the artist smiling at the camera. The cartoons
were all designed to evoke a certain kind of food being eaten in humble circum-
stances. As a riddle it was absurdly easy. The ¤rst thing the cartoonist drew, in
fact, was some letters being pulled out of a ful pot and formed into the words
al-ful sadiqi (“fava beans are my friend”). It was a “Beans Are My Friend” cari-
cature riddle. Anyone who was minimally literate, of course, already knew that
the answer was “ful”—fava beans. The ful beans cartoons themselves were all
very simple and obvious. From the look of them one might have surmised that
the goal of the program was entertainment for young children. On the other
hand, one wonders just what a toddler would do with the prizes. A four-year-old
winning hajj tickets? A four-burner stove?
After the cartoonist ¤nished, Fayza Hasan came back on and restated the
riddle in a poem:
Shall we say the riddle?
"Amm (“uncle”) Zaghlul al-Zanati
When the cannon sounds says “Woman, bring me some meat
I feel like some protein from the kabab restaurant.”
She smiles, and says to Zaghlul al-Zanati:
“We have some vegetarian protein
Its scienti¤c name is vichya faba
Food of the poor
Add a bit of lemon and oil, and dig in

210 Walter Armbrust