Last April, the Egyptian series Taht El Wesaya (‘Under Guardianship’) made headlines amidst the year’s heated Ramadan television race. Co-written by Khaled and Sherine Diab and directed by Mohamed Shaker Khodeir, the show stars Mona Zaki in the role of Hanan, a widow fighting to provide for her children after her husband’s sudden death. When her in-laws try to seize her late husband’s fishing boat – her only source of income – and take her children out of school, Hanan illegally retrieves the ship and flees to Damietta with her son and daughter, where they begin a precarious new life. The series reaped praise for its raw portrait of single motherhood in a patriarchal society, exceptional cinematography — and for its role in initiating talks of reform to Egypt’s guardianship law, which dictates that a late father’s inheritance and legal guardianship of his children go to their paternal grandfather. The social impact of Taht El Wesaya is not a standalone incident, but rather, reflects the role that Egyptian television series, known as mosalsalat, have historically played in shaping public opinion and pushing forward developmental objectives. The rise and fall of…
