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ABSTRACT
Half-Past Five (Khamseh w Nos) (KN) is a Lebanese series that achieved a high viewership rate in the Arab world when premiered during Ramadan 2019 on widely watched Arabic television stations. Although KN focuses on a woman’s (Bayan’s) philanthropic work, achievements, and sufferings in a male-dominated space, we contend that the series still permeates with strong patriarchal tendencies. The lack of a collective feminist consciousness and the prevalence of the dominant patriarchal system cast a shadow over the status of Lebanese women in KN and in reality. Viewers empathise with Bayan as a human being victimised by unfortunate circumstances and a cruel husband. However, the narrative, plot, and filmic dynamics in KN divert viewers’ attention from noting that Bayan’s struggle is representative of Lebanese women’s struggle under hegemonic patriarchy. We argue that KN is a product of popular culture that enhances the pleasure of the viewers while diluting women’s rights issues and obstructing these issues from entry into the public agenda. We hold that informed feminist/humanist viewership can work against the emergence of a viewership indifferent to women’s subjugation in KN.
Acknowledgments
We hereby acknowledge that our research received no funding or compensation for any expenses.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
13. In an interview broadcast on the Lebanese Future channel in 2016, Njeim announced that she is against equality between men and women, explaining that “it is more becoming for a woman to remain spoiled and feminine, and if women seek equality with men, they turn into men.” In the same interview Njeim also admitted that she would not mind if her son had premarital sex because he is a man, but she would not accept it for her daughter.
17. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/lebanese-women-demand-new-rights-amid-political-turmoil; https://www.wilpf.org/in-lebanon-the-revolution-is-a-woman/.
18. See: https://apnews.com/3c82e388012b46369f3b53959b6c56b8/Lebanon-LGBT-scene-empowered-despite-crackdown; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49838193.
20. It is important to mention that permissiveness in relation to Lebanese women’s bodies and sexuality is true for some groups of Lebanese women, while other groups, mostly Shiite and Sunni Muslims, remain observant of Islamic practices.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Hanan Ibrahim
Hanan Ibrahim is currently teaching in the Department of English Literature at Al-Ahliyya Amman University in Jordan. She is also head of the Department of English Literature and head of the Department of Translation. She obtained her PhD degree in Comparative Literary Studies in postcolonial feminist novels from the School of European Culture and Languages at University of Kent at Canterbury in the United Kingdom. She taught English literature at Jordan University, was head of Women’s Studies Programme at the same university, and director of two Jordanian NGOs. She also worked for the UNDP as head of the regional office for the Enhancement of Quality Assurance in Arab Universities. She is published in national, regional and international journals. Her research interests are diverse and covers the areas of feminism, interculturalism, interfaith relations and the “postcolonial” narrative. She is a founding member of both the Muslim-Christian Arab group based in Beirut-Lebanon and of Women on Boards in Jordan and a member of the Jordanian National Forum for Women. For more than eight years, she was a consistent participant in the interfaith dialogues organized by the World Council of Churches in Genève. E-mail: [email protected]
Linda Alkhawaja
Linda Alkhawaja is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Translation Studies at Al-Ahliyyah Amman University. She holds an MA in Translation and Interpreting Studies from Salford University/Manchester and PhD in Sociology in Translation Studies from Aston University/Birmingham. Her current research projects focus on the sociology of translation, aspects of cultural studies and Machine Translation. She took on, for two years, the role of the Director of the Language Centre and the Head of the English Language and Literature and English Language and Translation Departments. E-mail: [email protected]