The newspapers have this week two girls have been punished in Spain by their dress. One of them has been evicted from a procession in Granada for wearing a miniskirt that older brothers considered too short. Perhaps the argument seems outdated as soon, characteristic of people living in a world where virginity is still paid and to protect youth from the temptations of the flesh.
The second has been expelled from a test at his school for wearing hijab.
(c) Getty images
The actual binderArab Worldis notreligion, and would have us believe simplifying, but the TV.
This device is a member of any Arab family (member, clearly, louder) and satellite dishes are more typical of the current Arab landscape of minaretsmosques. Thanks to television that Arabs have a common language alive: theArabicClassical, that dinosaur, does little to readQuranand writing poetry, the speeches, with an air of grandeur, but not to communicate. Nobody speaks Arabic and classical, actually, many do not understand it well, as demonstrated in the continual controversy over the meanings of the verses. The regional dialects, despised by the officer, and would have become different languages were it not for the TV brand, unwittingly, patterns of evolution.
It is thanks to her that all Moroccans speak the Egyptian dialect and that all Algerians can laugh at like a syrupy accent Lebanese, yet, understand. Of course, the flow is never the reverse: North Africa does not produce television material exportable to other countries and, therefore, the rest of Arab North African dialects do not understand. It is also thanks to satellite channels from the Gulf orMiddle Eastall Arab dress, comb and a nose like. The TV remembers the Arab world that has its own cultural universe.
His influence, also, huge everywhere, is there unlimited. Misery (excluding the oil countries, most of the Arab world's population is poor), illiteracy and the reluctance to live out of doors makes no books, or film, or meetings in the town square to make competition.
It exists in Arab music… and if there, would like.
Because what matters is not the music, but the people. And the rest, is pure ornament.
Youtube is now availablevideo of the conference I gave at the auditorium of Arab House in Madrid to mark the Music Day (2011).
