While some TV series faced discussion and criticism through social media and the media, the series “Fallujah” crossed these limits to reach the courts in Tunisia “because it contains very dangerous behavior for children, adolescents, educators, and security observers,” according to the lawsuit filed to stop its broadcast.
The series began showing on Al-Hiwar Al-Tunisi channel since the beginning of Ramadan, starring Reem Al-Riahi, Mohamed Murad, Mohamed Ali Bin Jumaa, Naima Al-Jani, Sarah Al-Tunisi, Fares Abdel-Dayem, Nassim Bourguiba, and directed by Sawsan Al-Jamni, who said on her Facebook account, “We did it for a better Tunisia.”
The series deals with some phenomena and behaviors in secondary schools, such as drug trafficking and romantic relationships between teenagers, as well as students’ dealings with the teaching staff and other societal issues in Tunisia.
Al-Asaad Al-Yaqoubi, general secretary of the Public University for Secondary Education, told Archyde.com that the contents of the series “Fallujah” contain dangerous messages that affect the educational system in the country, and that it insults and defames the educator and hits the public institution.
Al-Yaqoubi wondered if the series was the mirror that reflects the reality in Tunisian schools, so where are the solutions to address the existing ills, considering that the issues raised and the behaviors presented in the series cannot be denied in reality, but exaggerated and legislated for them without providing solutions and an alternative that represents the real danger.
The Tunisian Al-Hiwar TV sparked widespread controversy about the series it produced during the month of Ramadan in previous years because it raised bold and sensitive topics in Tunisian society.
Muhammad Ali Al-Boughdiri, the Tunisian Minister of Education, criticized the series and considered it “a bad act to the extreme, striking the educational family in the depths,” noting that he had raised the matter to the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic.
Two Tunisian lawyers submitted a petition to the judiciary to stop broadcasting the drama, which they described as “deliberately striking morality and education by deliberately spreading obscenity…to corrupt the mentality of tomorrow’s generation,” according to the text of the request submitted by Saber Ben Ammar and Hassan Ezzedine Diab to the court.
The General University for Secondary Education, one of the largest educational unions affiliated with the Tunisian General Labor Union, also called for an investigation into the granting of a license from the Ministry of Education to film this series, “which violated the sanctity and symbolism of the school… and distorted the students’ image.”
For his part, the head of the Education Quality Association, Salim Qassem, said that freedom of expression and freedom of art and creativity are guaranteed, but practices that harm educational institutions cannot be accepted.
And he stated that the series (Fallujah) touched all those in charge of the educational process, including educators, directors, and curators, surprising that the public school doors were opened for such actions.
Taking the drama out of context
On the other hand, intellectuals believe that the series reflects a reality and reveals the silence about it, considering that perhaps the trauma is what will save generations of children, make families rally around their young, and make the education system review itself and make the necessary reforms.
Some critics and activists refused to involve President Qais Saeed in this issue and politicize the matter so as not to give way to the culture of prevention in the coming days.
Journalist and film critic Khamis al-Khayati told Archyde.com that the “shawshara” that accompanied the first episodes of the series (Fallujah) was fabricated and took the drama out of context, and is an attempt to impose moral censorship.
He was amazed at the statements of the Minister of Education, refusing that some impose his opinion on everyone in the event that whoever does not like the work can press a button to change the station and the matter ends.
Defenders of freedoms in Tunisia assert that interfering with works of art and imposing moral censorship on them is tantamount to legitimizing the restriction of freedoms, especially since the controversy is still raging about the decline in freedoms in Tunisia since July 25, 2021.
On the security level, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Fakir Bozgaya, stated that the series “Fallujah” is a representation and a dramatic work that does not affect the work of the Ministry of the Interior or the work of the security forces, despite his acknowledgment that there are some scenes “in which there is a lack of taste and a lack of morals,” as he put it.
Although the emergency department of the Court of First Instance in Tunis rejected, on Monday, the lawsuit to stop broadcasting the series, the battle continues on other fronts, including the media regulators, who face pressure to take a position.
However, a member of the Higher Independent Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAICA), Hisham El-Senounsi, said that no decision could be taken on a series since the first episodes.