Page 229 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere
P. 229
Fawazir Ramadan was clearly an “invented tradition” and, as proved in later
years, an impermanent one. Among my informants there was a consensus that
the practice of telling riddles in a mass-mediated format on each night of the
holiday dates to the 1950s. Some suggested that its origins were further in the
past—in the 1930s. Others believe that the custom of telling riddles during
Ramadan is ancient, although the capacity of modern holiday practices to create
nostalgia through very recent practices ought to make one cautious about claims
to the antiquity of Ramadan riddle-telling practices.
The mass-mediated version of the program has been attributed to be the
brainchild of the vernacular poet Salah Jahin and a radio hostess named Amal
Fahmi, who became known by the phrase “wi ni#ul kamaan” (“and we’ll say it
24
again,” after which the riddle was repeated). The phrase was also used by Fayza
Hasan in the caricature fazzura “Beans Are My Friend” mentioned above, and
the repetitive riddle-telling formula was replicated in the structure of the lavish
fazzura described below. Ten years after the 1950s radio incarnation of Fawazir
25
Ramadan the program migrated to television. In 1975 it metamorphosed into
Sura wa Fazzura (A picture and a riddle). This was the ¤rst time that the riddle
was enacted by a vivacious dancer known on the stage as Nelli.
Also in 1975 the manager of the electronics company Casio began to offer
digital wrist watches as a prize for guessing the riddles. He was later trumped
by the owner of the local BMW dealership, who offered a luxury car. In the
mid-1980s the Islamic investment companies (al-Rayan and al-Sa"d, among oth-
ers, later accused of massive fraud and dissolved) used their sponsorship of the
26
Fawazir to promote their businesses. Since then the sponsors have again been
corporations.
Nelli, the main performer in the 1990 episode described here, was introduced
by the announcer as al-fannana al-isti"radiyya (the revue-show artiste). She was
essentially a dancer but not of the “oriental” type. Some of my informants
opined that Nelli, though vivacious and often presented in form-¤tting out¤ts,
was considered more “cute” than “sexy.” She had a ®air for comedy and seemed
to have a special appeal to children.
One ¤nal observation: each year the Fawazir had a theme. It was always secu-
lar. One year it was “folk proverbs.” In another it was tales from A Thousand and
One Nights. In the Fawazir program discussed here, the theme was “paper”—
birth certi¤cates, graduation diplomas, marriage licenses, and the like.
Fawazir 1990: World of Paper, Paper, Paper
Fawazir Ramadan of 1990 was introduced by an attractive un-hijabed
woman, as is typical of all Egyptian visual media (and in sharp contrast to most
of the female viewers it addresses): “Ladies and gentlemen: Ramadan Riddles,
by the title ‘World of Paper, Paper, Paper.’” The program consists of thirty pieces
of paper that have special signi¤cance in our lives. The star of the show is the
“revue artiste” (al-fannana al-isti"radiyya) Nelli (and various other important
contributors to the project are named). Then came a grandiose (and perhaps
218 Walter Armbrust