'Subversive' Turkish TV series takes Arab world by storm

Despite being branded "subversive" and "anti-Islamic" by a top Saudi Muslim cleric, millions of viewers from Beirut to Algiers tune in up to three times a day to watch the Turkish-made soap opera, "Noor", dubbed into Arabic.

With his strawberry blond curls, blues eyes and engaging smile, Mohannad is setting the pulses of millions of Arab women racing in a television series critics claim is scandalising traditional Muslim values.

The series tells the story of Mohannad and his equally stunning wife Noor as they wrestle to reconcile the conflicting pressures of traditional and modern worlds.

"I love it because it is as glamorous as the foreign soap operas (American and Mexican) we sometimes watch," said Cairo resident Safaa Abdel Hadi, a self-confessed Noor addict.

"But at the same time the family in 'Noor' is Muslim and they have similar traditions and customs, so we relate to them much more," she added.

"They are a bit like us," said Lebanese Christian housewife Ibtissam Issa. "I really like their belief in tradition and their loyalty to the family."

Noor tells the story of a young mother who abandons her family home to start a new life with her baby and the story of another woman who becomes pregnant out of wedlock -- issues frowned upon in the conservative Arab world.

"We must not fool ourselves into thinking that because they are Muslim they are like us. The show reflects Western culture and problems, not our own," said 34-year-old Nadia Abdel Rahman of Egypt.

In order to protect the sensibilities of conservative Arab and Muslim viewers, the production company, Sama, which provides the voice-over, has deleted intimate scenes considered to be "inappropriate".

Nevertheless Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, head of the country's highest religious authority, issued a fatwa against the series.

He branded it "subversive", "anti-Islamic" and decreed that any channel which broadcasts the series is "an enemy of God and his Prophet".

Ironically, the programme is aired by Saudi satellite channel MBC which last spring arranged a dinner banquet in Dubai in honour of the two main actors, prompting fans of the soap to go wild.

Producers Sama also won over a wider audience by using for the voice-overs everyday Arabic, rather than the more ceremonious classical version of the language.

A Syrian dialect, which appeals to viewers thanks to past popular television series, was used to dub Mohannad and Noor, known respectively in real life as Kivanc Tatlitug and Songul Oden.

Tatlitug has proved such a hit with female viewers that Arab television have carried reports of that a number of jealous husbands have filed for divorce from their wives.

Fatwa or not, "Noor-mania" is running riot.

From the souks of Tunis to the markets of east Jerusalem, T-shirts bearing pictures of the glamourous couple, Mohannad and Noor, are selling like hotcakes.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Nablus, several coffee shops have been renamed Noor and Mohannad in tribute to the soap's two lovebirds, who in the original Turkish show are called Gumus and Mehmet respectively.

"I sell more than 500 photos of the stars of 'Noor' each day, particularly ones of Mohannad. The girls are mad about him," said Hussein, a Syrian street vendor near Syria's Damascus University.

A travel agency in the northern Israeli town of Nazareth has even cashed in on the phenomenon by offering trips to Turkey, which include a visit to a mansion on the banks of the Bosphoros where the series is filmed.

"Noor" drew more viewers than the Beijing Olympics in Beirut, where cafe and restaurant owners have put up big television screens to ensure that their customers, and staff, can get their daily fix. Story here.