On the sidelines of his criticism of the state’s monopoly on the drama industry in Egypt, and considering it a derogation from the freedom of art and drama;
The Egyptian artist, Mohamed Sobhi, renewed his attack on what he called frivolous acts that present women as a "prostitute" or a "drug dealer".
Sobhi - in a live broadcast on his personal Facebook page, which he described as rare - attacked two days ago the television channels' presentation of trivial dramatic works, and their reluctance to present meaningful, respectful and valuable works.
And he demanded - during his speech - "to carry out censorship that prevents depravity, immorality and bullying, and prevents women from appearing in all series as either a traitor, or a prostitute, or a drug dealer, what are we offering, my brothers."
Sobhi's attack on artworks that show Egyptian women not in their true form, or by addressing only the negative part of them, is part of his campaign that he adopted years ago against this trend, which has become common in Egyptian art.
The Egyptian artist devoted a large part of his artwork to supporting women and correcting misconceptions or the distorted image that producers are keen to present to make money at the expense of women's value and status in Eastern society recently.
One of the last of those works was the play "I, the Bee and the Wasp" at the end of 2019, and he openly expressed his strong dissatisfaction with the way women were dealt with, and accused the media of doing what the enemies wanted, and by undermining them, the teacher, and the role model.
#Mohamed_Sobhi wins for women in the show “I, the Bee and the Wasp”: “The lady in art is either a prostitute or a drug dealer” pic.twitter.com/9KCYLHbg4j
- Al-Masry Al-Youm (@AlMasryAlYoum) November 27, 2019
He stressed in his speech that "art presents the worst image of women for many years, and it is a distorted image, and I am ashamed when I meet Arab friends who have not visited Egypt, and they think that this is the image of a woman, either a prostitute, an addict or a homosexual."
Muhammad Sobhi attacked some of the works that are shown on the Egyptian channels, and said: “They broadcast ridiculous, frivolous acts. I do censorship that prevents prostitution, contempt and bullying, and prevents women from appearing in all series, either as a traitor, or a prostitute, or a drug dealer, what do we offer, my brothers.”
— Salah Bediwy (@Salah_Bediwy) September 20, 2021
Muhammad Sobhi does not get tired of the importance of talking about preserving the role of women in society as an essential and valuable element in upgrading society, and the tweeters interact with his theory about the “pillars of the demolition of society”, which is through the destruction of women, education and good role models.
Dangerous and realistic words by the artist Mohamed Sobhi The demolition of society starts with the disintegration of a small family.
If you want to destroy a civilization, there are three ways:
1 Demolition of the family 2 Demolition of education 3
Overthrowing the role
model
In order to destroy a family, you have to neglect the role of the mother. Make her ashamed as a housewife 👇🏻👇🏻# Rahaf_Al-Qunun pic.twitter. com/0PJCNaeINK
— ﮼ Muhammad ﮼ Al-Zayani ⚖️ (@Mohamed_Srag1) January 16, 2019
He stressed in previous television and press interviews that it is not a freedom of creativity to portray Egyptian women as "a prostitute or a drug dealer," and said, "This is a defect, because art is exported to other peoples, and you believe this is in Egyptian women."
# With a paper and a pen - Mohamed Sobhi: We can't see the image of a woman in the cinema that she is a whore..a shame #TeNTV pic.twitter.com/C6sj4doce5
— A pen and paper program (@blwar2awel2alm) April 18, 2018
State monopoly on art
In the same clip, Sobhi complained about the state's artistic monopoly policy, and expressed his complete rejection of it, pointing out that a series he produced 4 years ago had been disrupted because of this policy.
He said, "I have been attending a series for 4 years, but a case happened in Egypt that I personally reject, rejecting the monopoly of art, when I make a series and cost it a lot and write it on the channels, I find (find) the channels all in one hand and the producer is one, the state is the one who produces and it owns All channels now.
Sobhi expressed his sorrow for the freedom that was available, saying, "The works that we presented during 50 years were complete freedom for the artist to present a work in which he competes with his colleagues to provide the best, but the monopoly made all the screens like each other, all of them are one approach, one opinion, all works She has one characteristic.
Egyptian artist Mohamed Sobhi: There is a state of monopoly on art in #Egypt in recent years pic.twitter.com/9pBskUxcbp
- Al Jazeera Mubasher (@ajmubasher) September 19, 2021
No freedom, no creativity
The Egyptian artist Hisham Abdullah supported what Sobhi said, and confirmed that "the negative image of Egyptian women in art during the past years does not belong to freedom of creativity, but to the theory of demolishing moral and social values, and women are the mother of society, and when the artist wanted to portray the rise of Egypt was a statue of the Renaissance of Egypt, a statue of a woman.”
And he stressed in his speech - to Al Jazeera Net - that when Sobhi talked about the demolition of values and the monopoly of art and the media through the state, as he said, it is responsible for introducing decadence and bullying and destroying values and constants, and that producers are only interested in increasing profits, and they are not concerned with artistic content.
In his comment, scriptwriter and art critic Hossam Al-Ghamry affirmed that "the artist Mohamed Sobhi, in most of his works, is keen to present a positive image of women, and to address their issues in a way that serves society and at the same time stays away from vulgarity."