What seemed like an innocent comic sketch on last weekend's Saturday Night Live Arabia, depicting the daily struggles of a working mother, is now at the centre of an online controversy.
Guest-star Hend Sabry, a renowned Tunisian actress, kicked off the show with an altered lyrical adaptation of the famous Egyptian children's song, Thahaba el-leylo, Tala'a al Fajro (The Night Has Gone, Sunrise Has Come).
The lyrics addressed the dilemma faced by many working mothers as they attempt to balance their career with raising children.
After beginning with a down-to-earth and sympathetic description of a mother’s daily routine, which includes little sleep, blaming herself for wanting to have children and a career, rushing home from work to find that her daughters have trashed her home and turned the living room into a football pitch, she then holds up a slipper and declares in a stern tone that the “sheb sheb”, the word for slipper in many Arabic dialects, is the Arab mother’s answer to restoring order – in other words, it is used to threaten a naughty child with a spanking.
The song then talks about Arab children’s infamous relationship with their mother’s slipper, and how it has evolved depending on the style of the slipper, “from the Gulf to the Mediterranean”.
“Long live the slipper, it is the Arab mother’s friend,” sings Sabry.
The video was uploaded to Facebook with more than 2.4 million views and 64,000 shares.
While many found the video amusing and relatable, going as far as calling it “spot on” – down to the choice of slipper – others have criticised the video and the 36-year-old actress, who is also a lawyer and a UN World Food Programme Ambassador, for indirectly promoting child abuse.
Amal Wasef, a Palestinian mother in Abu Dhabi, said the sketch was offensive.
“Sometimes [as a mother] you feel like that’s enough, you need your own space, but it doesn’t mean that I should use this way with my kids,” she says. “This gives foreign people a very bad idea about Arab women and the way they treat their kids.”
Nermeen Sheha, an Egyptian mother in Abu Dhabi, had a different view.
“The video is for comic relief, nothing more,” she said. “It also shows what working mothers have to go through.”
SNL Arabia was launched by UAE's OSN Ya Hala! HD channel from Egypt on February 20. It is an adaptation of the long-running hit US TV comedy show, Saturday Night Live.
artslife@thenational.ae
