The Egyptian Ramadan TV Series and National Fight with Drug Addiction

Abstract

In 2019, half a million people all over the world died as a result of drug abuse. This topic is a very sensitive issue in a number of countries, including the Arab Republic of Egypt, where the government informs its citizens every few months about steps to take to combat this problem. Creating a TV series to be aired during Ramaḍān, the most important part of year from the Islamic point of view and also because of the media industry, is one of the tools to create awareness of the danger of drug addiction. In the article, the results of the research conducted on a very popular Ramaḍān TV series from 2015 entitled Taḥt as-Sayṭara are presented. The research focused on the presentation of this problem, in particular whether or not the problem was presented in a realistic way, thus aiding in the fight with drug addiction. This series was special, as it was the first and the only which was devoted so directly to the problem of drug addiction; the sickness covered about 89‒90% of the plot.