Saudi TV comedy with Moroccan maid causes a stir

A new Saudi television comedy programme featuring a Moroccan housemaid began broadcasting yesterday on Dubai satellite television, stirring up a debate about the negative stereotypes of both Moroccan and Saudi women in the Arab world. The show entitled “Malika Shaghala” (Malika the housemaid) provoked angry reactions across many social networking sites after the first episode was broadcast on Dubai TV. The comedy tells the story of a Saudi family, who employ a beautiful Moroccan maid to work for them.  But problems arise after numerous members of the family, as well as family friends, start to fall in love with the house worker. Young Moroccans have taken to social media websites to complain about the stereotypical nature of the progranmme, and called on the Moroccan government to issue a strong diplomatic response against the negative stereotyping of Moroccan women. For their part, Saudis too found the show distasteful.  Some said the programme only propagates the idea that Saudi women were less attractive than their Moroccan counterparts. Saudi female Fouz al-Shahri, criticised the programme for showing Saudi women in such a negative light and likened the Saudi male characters to “flies buzzing around honey”. Saudi blogger Ria Ahmed, criticised the way the show portrayed Saudi women as jealous and unattractive.  In one episode, a young suitor visits the family home to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage but, upon seeing the young housemaid, he changes his mind and says he wants her instead. The programme begins with the family waiting impatiently for their new housemaid to arrive so they can throw her a welcome party.  The father goes to the airport to bring her home, while the mother lectures her children on the importance of not making fun of her, believing she will be unattractive.  But the family soon finds out the housemaid is Moroccan.  The revelation is a shock to the mother who, upon meeting her, demands that she leave immediately, accuses her husband of being a liar and a cheat before telling him to chose between her and the maid.  After much pleading from ‘Malika’ in which she begs to keep her job so she can support her family back home, the mother reluctantly agrees to a short probationary period – but only on the condition she does not serve or talk to her husband and wears a hijab at all times. The wife soon notices a change in her husband, and her teenage son’s behavior.  They don’t go out as much as they used to and she becomes convince that not only are her sons and husband falling in love with Malika, but also her daughter! The series ends with the wife firing the maid and ordering her husband to take her back to the airport, a bad move, as she soon learns that her husband has not only taken Malika to the airport, but he’s eloped with her to Morocco. Despite the lighthearted nature of the programme, it highlights an existing problem in the Saudi kingdom. Back in September last year, the recruitment committee of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced that recruitment companies would be established and will be licensed to bring in housemaids from Morocco, East Asia and South Africa. Many Saudi women objected to the importing of Moroccan girls, not because they didn’t think they would work hard, but because they thought the Moroccan women were too beautiful. The protests started slowly, but over a few days the protests grew to the point where the Saudi women inundated the government with complaints that Moroccan women are just too beautiful and may lure their husbands away. According to the website Emirates 24 the Shura Council was “deluged by demands from Saudi women”