Jareema appears in official police reports and courtrooms, as well as in fierce criticism of songs, films and performances.
Our Arabic word of the week means crime and describes an act punishable by law, ranging from theft and fraud to murder. The plural is jaraim, meaning “crimes”.
Jareema comes from the root letters jim, ra and mim, which also carry meanings associated with wrongdoing and guilt. The verbs ajrama and ajramat mean he or she committed a crime, respectively, while mujrim refers to a criminal. Ijram means criminality and ilm al-ijram is criminology, while masrah al-jareema refers to the crime scene.
Modern uses include jaraim elektroniyya, meaning cybercrimes; jareema munazzama, organised crime; and jaraim harb, war crimes. Legal Arabic distinguishes clearly between mujrim, a criminal whose guilt is implied, and muttaham, someone accused of an offence.
The accusation can also be figurative. Jareema fi haqq al-fann means a crime against art and may be used to dismiss a song, film or performance as particularly bad.
In literature, adab al-jareema refers to crime fiction, while jareema kamila means the perfect crime.
The 2022 Egyptian thriller Al Jareema, or El Gareema in Egyptian Arabic, stars Ahmed Ezz, Menna Shalaby and Maged El Kedwany.
Set in 1970s Egypt, the film follows an investigation that begins after a man escapes from a psychiatric hospital and new evidence emerges in connection with a series of killings.
Another familiar expression is al-jareema la tufid, meaning crime does not pay. It was used as the title of a story in the Egyptian anthology series Helwa El Donia Sokar, involving an online journalist investigating an artist accused of theft.
Serious in court and dramatic in conversation, jareema can describe both a criminal act and an offence judged in the court of public opinion.
