Egyptian TV channel Marya hires only veiled women and celebrity pariahs
MARYA (pronounced Marry yer) is an exclusively female Egyptian satellite TV channel featuring only women veiled in the niqaab. As befitting such a bastion of sisterhood, Marya is owned by Salafi Sheikh Abu Islam Ahmad Abd Allah, a man.The channel’s general manager Sheikha Safaa explains:
“The work in operations of the channel will be handled by the sisters in charge of management, especially as women are the best one to talk about their needs. The channel “aims at lifting injustice” of the veiled.
Sheikh Abu Islam Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah has other aims, seeing his channel as a way of “protecting women from temptations by finding them suitable work opportunities”. He adds:
“We plan on hiring all our staff of veiled women and finish that within three months. We have already hired women, filming professionals from other television channels to train our all women team on production, filming, and other skills. But for the technical skills we have to rely on men because we were not able to find skilled women in this field yet”.
Given the disguised appearances of the on-screen talent, you might wonder if the station will become a destination for celebrities and other stars of the magic box who have fallen out of favour. Will Gary Glitter present travel news? John Leslie cover dating? Jonathan King on music up-and-coming talent?
Posted: 24th, May 2012 | In: TV & Radio Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
