JEDDAH: A controversial episode from a satirical Saudi television show was finally aired on Saturday, despite coming under fire from scholars and viewers.
The "Multiple Husbands" episode, the fourth to be shown on the 17th series of Tash Ma Tash, revolves around a woman with four husbands who wants to divorce one so she can marry for the fifth time.
It is based on Saudi columnist Nadine Al-Bidair's article "My Four Husbands and I," published last December in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri Al-Youm. The column created a major Islamic debate and received massive criticism.
In the episode, the woman marries her second husband because the first stops caring about his looks after five years of marriage as well as being too busy with work.
The woman marries the third husband as part of a dare with her friends. She then weds the fourth because he is Syrian and by that point she is bored with Saudi men.
She tells her husbands that she wants a fifth because she wants to feel young again, but adds that she needs to divorce one of them first in order to achieve this.
After the men draw lots, she divorces the husband who draws the short straw.
The episode featured the jealousy that occurs between the four men, reflecting how Saudi women feel when they are in the same position.
The show ends with a scene featuring a press conference, where a woman playing the role of the director addresses a press conference.
She is attacked by the reporters and is told that it was an episode that goes against religion.
She replies that the only purpose of the show was to bring men closer to how women feel and suffer when they are put in similar circumstances. "Besides, this is acting, not reality," she adds.
Tash Ma Tash, which has been criticized in the past by religious scholars and viewers, received even more negative feedback than ever this year, with one scholar urging the public not to watch it at all.
Viewers attacked the show on online forums and news websites. They said that the actors, the director, producers and the channel should be taken to court.
Sheikh Saad Al-Buraik said on Saudi religious channel Daleel that the series "uses comedy as a tool to make fun of scholars and religion."
He said men had worn women's clothes in previous episodes and made fun of polygamy. "What this does is hurt us. In the name of comedy, they make fun of our religion and beliefs," he said, and called for court action against the actors.
Al-Buraik also described the thought of women having multiple husbands as simply "disgusting" because it resembled prostitution.
"We will not let this go, in fact we'll follow them [those involved in the episode] and make sure that they are prosecuted for their actions," he added.
Reem Al-Abdullah, who played the wife, told a local daily "the idea was beautiful and deserved further analysis." She added that the episode sent a clear message about how much a woman suffers when her husband marries another woman.
Al-Abdullah called on critics not to give the episode more coverage as the directors intended.
By Fatima Sadiya
© Arab News 2010
