Solidarity minister praises 4 Ramadan drama series free of drug scenes

CAIRO – 26 June 2018: Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali praised four Ramadan drama series that are reportedly free of drug scenes, within the framework of the national efforts to combat negative scenes affecting youth and children.

Celebrating the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, Wali praised drama series "El Waseya" (The Legacy), "Amr Wake’a" (Matter of Fact), the Arabic version of "Al-Shareet Al-Ahmar" (Red Band Society), and "Waklenha Walaa" which were broadcasted during the holy month of Ramadan.

In a press conference, Wali reviewed statistics collected by the Addiction Treatment and Abuse Fund’s media observatory, concerning the percentage of drug scenes in the 2018 Ramadan drama series.

Statistics have shown positive results, including the decrease of smoking scenes to 6 percent instead of 13 percent last year. The drug abuse scenes also decreased to 2 percent from 4 percent in the previous year, according to the statistics.

Wali said that drama plays a pivotal role in shaping children and youth's awareness of a number of social phenomena, especially smoking and drugs, which was clearly shown by the national research announced by the fund in 2017, showing that media has been the number one source of information about smoking and drugs among secondary school students.

Head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Regulation, Makram Mohamed Ahmed; Director of the Drug Control and Addiction Treatment Fund, Amr Osman; in addition to a number of Parliament members and drama critics attended the event headed by Wali.


Head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Regulation, Makram Mohamed Ahmed (C) attends the meeting - Egypt Today/Ashraf Fawzy
During the event, Wali affirmed her keenness to meet Egyptian drama makers every year, especially at the end of Ramadan, to discuss the analysis results of drug and smoking scenes incorporated in Ramadan drama series.

Wali said that the World Health Organization (WHO) presented the initiative of the media observatory of the Drug Control and Addiction Treatment Fund during a high-level meeting held last March in India’s capital of New Delhi, as part of the efforts exerted to combat promotion for tobacco products that kills over 7 million people each year, according to the WHO.


a press conference to reviewed statistics collected by the Addiction Treatment and Abuse Fund’s media observatory, concerning the percentage of drug scenes in the 2018
In September 2017, Wali signed a conference cooperation protocol with Ahmed to counter the misuse of substance abuse and addiction in the media.

During the conference, Wali stated that the protocol aims to take all the necessary steps to activate an ethical code relating to the treatment of substance abuse and addiction. Those codes were decided in 2015 under the patronage of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

"A total of 5,000 scenes featuring smoking and drug abuse have been aired in TV series in the last three years during the holy month of Ramadan," Wali said, pointing out that this is considered a serious attack against the country.

She stated that the Ministry of Social Solidarity recorded 2,428 scenes of smoking and drug abuse in the Egyptian drama aired during Ramadan 2017, in a total of 56 hours and 33 minutes.