LETTER FROM BEIRUT
Yazan, a Jordanian raised in a conservative background, laughs back at the first time he visited a pornographic site. “I was 13 or 14 years old and until then no one had been able to teach me about sexuality. Our natural science teacher, when we asked him the origin of acne pimples, he would blush. Discovering porn, therefore, was a very special moment. But when I met someone, I understood how much reality is different, how these images have distorted my vision of women. “
For Salma, the discovery of this sulphurous universe dates back to her 23 years. “I knew my boyfriend was looking at these sites, it made me nervous, so I went to see for myself and it upset me. I lost all confidence in myself. I was sure my boyfriend was comparing me with all these girls. And then I started to like it. I can see that women are treated like objects, but that gives me pleasure. I say my prayers, I believe in God, and I watch porn. “
These two unvarnished testimonials are taken from a recent episode of “Eib”, one of the most followed “native” podcasts in the Arab world. This interjection (pronounced “ayib”), very common in the Middle East, which means “shameful”, is reserved for practices that the dominant morality condemns. The show, as its name suggests, deals with social taboos, particularly in terms of sex and male-female relations, two areas undermined in these societies, in the grip of a religious conservatism that is still very strong.
Among the subjects recently addressed by “Eib”, in addition to pornography, are harassment in the street, the distribution of household chores within the couple, “honor killings” – the name given in the Middle East to the murder of women accused of damaging the reputation of their families – abortion and interfaith marriages. “This program is one of the few places in the Arab world where you can freely debate issues of gender and sexuality”, welcomes Ramsey Tesdell, an American-Palestinian journalist, boss of the Jordanian label Sowt, which brings together some twenty podcasts in Arabic, including ” Eib », Its flagship product.
Personal stories carefully put into sound
Launched in 2017, the show, which claims tens of thousands of listeners per month, is now in its eighth season. Its concept, nourished by the Middle Eastern tradition of hakawati, the storyteller, is based on the sharing of experiences, one or more personal stories, carefully put into sound. The presenter, who changes according to the seasons, intervenes more or less in the testimonies, intended to question stereotypes, conventions and prohibitions, without attacking ready-made alternative morals.
You have 48.08% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.