I was at the mall the other day and I saw these kids’ t-shirts featuring Noor and Mohannad, the stars of the ultra-popular Turkish soap opera currently dominating airtime on Arab TVs, and I thought “You’ve GOT to be kidding me!“

It’s one thing to be fascinated by the characters or the plot of the story as an adult (you’re old enough to decide for yourself what to like and what to dislike, and if you ask me you’ve got poor taste in drama if you like Noor, but whatever), but to have children wear pictures of some actors who play mature roles is beyond unacceptable. The trouble is that children, especially young girls, are captivated by the show as well, due to the influence of the adults in their families or through peer pressure. This is sick and it says a lot about the depravity of our society.

And for good measure, Bab Al-Hara characters also had their own t-shirts. I am dreading Ramadan…

All of this reminds me of the Cassandra mania, which was a mid-90s social obsession with a Mexican soap opera with Arabic voice overs. One of my school friends at the time wrote in my notebook “You’re prettier than Cassandra,” and she signed her words with a sticker featuring Cassandra herself, with her long black hair and shoulderless and sleeveless white top. Cassandra skirts, colorful wrinkled gypsy-type long skirts, were all over the market and most girls wore them for a year or two. Cassandra’s lover, Ignazio (?), was the epitome of masculine appeal, as is this Turkish character Mohannad these days.

It seems to me that our society is programmed to fall in love with TV dramas every now and then, and it goes out of its way to prove its devotion. Heck, Jordan even hosted Noor and Mohannad the other day! If this is not an indication of some chronic voidness, I don’t know what is.