PBS Show Wide Angle "Class of 2006" Murshidaat in Morocco
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/morocco/The show covers the graduation of 50 Moroccan women through a one-year program of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs's murshidaat program.
Compared to the overall coverage of Muslim affairs in the U.S. media, it's pretty good. What's striking to me is the great distance between the perspectives expressed by the participants in the program and the analysts and experts, expressed in interviews and the ubiquitous voiceovers.
The murshidaat said they were motivated by the prospect of a government position, religious impulse and a desire to help their country and its people. Feminist reformers, Islamist reformers and government officials discussed the political motivations behind the program, portraying the imams and murshidaat as instruments of government policy against Islamists (or the other labels, "salafi", "wahhabi", "extremist", etc.).
The program would have been a lot more effective if it gave more screen time to the imams and murshidaat. Unfortunately, the producers were not able to cover the murshidaat's activities after graduation.
posted by Ayman Hossam Fadel at
7/26/2006 02:46:00 PM
1 comment(s):
I taped this to watch later today. I was surprised that a program would have been done about them so soon after they've graduated, and it's a shame now that you're saying they weren't able to follow them after graduation. -- Umm Zaid
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Anonymous, at
7/26/2006 03:40:00 PM
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