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Soap Operas and Schools Bring Turkish Culture to Pakistan

RiazHaq

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Cultural invasion of Pakistan is in full swing with Turkish schools and soap operas finding broad acceptance across the country. Local TV channels are airing soap operas dubbed in Urdu and Gülen movement is operating over a dozen schools in different parts of the country.

Turkish Entertainment:

Since last summer, channel Urdu1 has enjoyed top TV ratings with its multiple daily airings of the Turkish soap opera Ishq-e-Mamnu, or “Forbidden Love", according to the New York Times. Afraid of being left behind, Geo Entertainment, part of Pakistan's biggest media empire spawned by recent media revolution in the country, has joined the bandwagon with its prime-time airing of Noor. It's a rags to riches story of a woman, and her adoring husband, played by the blue-eyed former model Kivanc Tatlitug.

Ishq-e-Mamnu.jpg

Ishq-e-Mamnoon Cast Members

While the soaps depict a western lifestyle and deal with subjects that are considered taboo in Pakistan, they include characters with Muslim names which many Pakistanis can identify with.

This latest trend contrasts sharply with what has been happening in the country for several decades. Since 1980s, Pakistan's cultural transformation has been led, in part, by Pakistani workers traveling to and returning from Arab countries. These workers have brought with them Arab notions of Islamic piety and hard-line Wahabi beliefs to Pakistan. This phenomenon has contributed to the proliferation of radical madrassas funded by Saudi money in many parts of the country.

Arabs, seen as model Muslims by many Pakistanis, are themselves soaking up Turkish culture. Back in 2008, Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC) bought Noor and broadcast it across the Arab world to win its hearts and minds. Now Turkish shows are dominating the Arab airwaves. Even Greece, traditional rival of Turkey, has become so hospitable to Turkish soaps that they "are gaining a worshipful following in Greece", according to Mary Andreou who writes for the Greek newspaper Adesmeftos Typos.

Magnificent Century – Turkey’s most popular and most talked-about but controversial soap is about the lavish lifestyle of Suleiman The Magnificent who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566 at the height of its glory and is still revered as Kanuni, or Lawgiver. His empire included large parts of Eastern and Central Europe and the entire Middle East. It is watched in 43 countries by 200 million people, according to David Rohde in The Atlantic. The Hurriyet reports that Turkish soap opera exports have grown from US$1 million in 2007 to nearly US$100 million today. Around a hundred different Turkish serials are exported in dubbed or subtitled form to North Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

Turkish Education:

In Pakistan, Turkish presence extends beyond television entertainment; there's a network of Turkish schools being operated by Gülen Movement, a transnational religious, social, and possibly political movement led by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. It's been described by New York Times as coming "from a tradition of Sufism, an introspective, mystical strain of Islam". Currently, Gulen Pakistan is operating 14 Pak-Turk schools serving over 3000 students in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Khairpur, Multan, Peshawar and Quetta.

Pak-Turk+School.jpg

Pak-Turk School, Jamshoro, Pakistan

In a CBS 60 Minutes segment last year, here's how correspondent Leslie Stahl described Gulen schools in the United States: "Over the past decade scores of charter schools have popped up all over the U.S., all sharing some common features. Most of them are high-achieving academically, they stress math and science, and one more thing: they're founded and largely run by immigrants from Turkey who are carrying out the teachings of a Turkish Islamic cleric: Fethullah Gulen". CBS report said Gulen schools in the United States have 20,000 students enrolled with 30,000 more on waiting list. The growing popularity of Turkish charter schools has drawn suspicion and criticism of various groups in the United States.

Critics:

Growing Turkish influence in Pakistan has its critics. Local actors and producers decry the new competition of Turkish soaps for "destroying our society". Others see as part of the American conspiracy. Mesut Kacmaz, a Muslim teacher from Turkey, was warned by a mosque near where he works never to return wearing a tie, according to a news report.

Future:

Today's Turkey is a modern democratic and secular state run by moderate Islamists. It is seen by many Muslims, including Pakistani Muslims, as a model pluralist society that offers many lessons for the rest of the Islamic world. But it has many detractors as well. For example, there is significant resistance to growing Turkish cultural and educational influence in Pakistan. The Turkish influence is still small but rising rapidly, and the resistance from entrenched orthodoxy is increasing with it. It does offer hope as an anti-dote to the radical Saudi influence that is at least partly responsible for growing violence in Pakistan. While I do see signs of hope with the emergence of Turkey as model for Pakistan and other Muslim countries, only time will tell as to how this culture war unfolds to shape Pakistan's future.

Haq's Musings: Can Turkish Soaps and Schools Counter Saudi Influence in Pakistan?
 
Wahabis will not like it and mullahs will issue fatwas against the impure culture and nudity being imposed upon as shown in the above pic. :rolleyes:
 
The question is are we happy with overwhelming Saudi influence that has created so many problems in Pakistan?

I think about Pakistan of 70s. It was a very tolerant and a very happy place. Why cant we have that Pakistan back instead of copying this model or that model?
 
Wahabis will not like it and mullahs will issue fatwas against the impure culture and nudity being imposed upon as shown in the above pic. :rolleyes:

I consider Turkey as modern, secular, democratic country with liberal western culture which is antithesis to where Pakistan with its innumerable madrassas is heading. Maybe fascination and intrigue could be short lived.
 
What's wrong with our own culture that we need to import cultures from anywhere else?

How can airing Turkish dramas be dubbed as cultural invasion while watching English movies and tv serials for last 60 years was never considered cultural invasion?

Grow up and stop spreading conspiracy theories.
 
What's wrong with our own culture that we need to import cultures from anywhere else?

How can airing Turkish dramas be dubbed as cultural invasion while watching English movies and tv serials for last 60 years was never considered cultural invasion?

Grow up and stop spreading conspiracy theories.

It does not help to have xenophobia and spin conspiracy theories.

In the globalized world today, every nation and every society is influenced by foreign cultures to varying degrees. The real question is which influences to accept and embrace and which ones to resist and reject....that's what Pakistanis have to decide.
 
if the Turks create an Urdu version of Kurtlar Vadisi I will tune in every God damned day of the year
 
The question is are we happy with overwhelming Saudi influence that has created so many problems in Pakistan?

I think about Pakistan of 70s. It was a very tolerant and a very happy place. Why cant we have that Pakistan back instead of copying this model or that model?

things used to be a lot more tolerant and a lot cooler in general. . .

we can have it back if people grow a sack and stop letting hypocritical narcissistic frauds with long beards get things the way they want

in all honesty -- I dont care for foreign dramas as much as I do about Pakistan re-inventing and re-investing in its own domestic industry. We have no shortage of talent. In fact the money is there too.....but the nation currently suffers from creative laziness and this culture of laziness has been enforced by the unpatriotic, treacherous government -- which seems to have served indian industry rather than serving its own!
 
I dont think Turkish dramas have any negative influence. However, our own indstry must be a priority. Without government help or incentives Pakistani drama industry has done a tremendous job. Instead of shirking from competition, the drama industry must embrace it.

Not that I m Pakistani that I m saying this, but head to head Pakistani drama in terms of substance and acting is at a much higher pedestal than Turkish drama.

The private channels must give precedence to Pakistani production.
 
things used to be a lot more tolerant and a lot cooler in general. . .

we can have it back if people grow a sack and stop letting hypocritical narcissistic frauds with long beards get things the way they want

in all honesty -- I dont care for foreign dramas as much as I do about Pakistan re-inventing and re-investing in its own domestic industry. We have no shortage of talent. In fact the money is there too.....but the nation currently suffers from creative laziness and this culture of laziness has been enforced by the unpatriotic, treacherous government -- which seems to have served indian industry rather than serving its own!

Mid 70s I started going to school. I vividly remember those days. ALong came Zia and brought loads of Saudi money. This project jihad, sponsored by CIA and our own zeal to fight other nation's wars have riven our society.

Before there were few mullahs and no weapons or drugs to be found. By the time I had gone to college a decade later, there were weapons everywhere and dru addicts hunkered by the streets getting their daily dose.

Not just that, Pakistan had also become a killing field of ideologies. It was shia vs sunni extremists slitting each other's throats and this continues till today.

Zia's legacy is too much to bear for our country. Musharraf wasn't a shining star either. Pakistan will improve and find its identity only when people like us take control of our country and not wait for a savior.

Till that time, we'll have this discussion going on which culture to adopt and where to import it from.
 
For all you people crying about Saudi influence and other things, I just have to say that you people need to stop crying and acting like victims. Man up and take responsibility for your $hit.
It was not the Saudis that forced us to spend almost no money on education, it was not the Saudis that forced our generals to coup against the democratic government. It was not the Saudis that destroyed our economy which lead to more poverty which lead to extremism.

Stop acting like kids who just whine and cry all the time and admit that it was us Pakistanis who destroyed ourselves.
I am so sick of this childish attitude, you people need to grow up and grow a pair.
 
these dramas seem very purposeful and generate positive energy as compared to the nonsense gherelo sazishi indian dramas...


I'm against the indecencies the Turkish soaps may bring into Pakistan.

Another thing, is when do Pakistanis think that all Arabs of today's Middle East are all model Muslims?

I have seen many messed up Arabs.

RiazHaq, your article is bogus.

Saudi Arabia has done a lot for Pakistan in the past.

For those Turkey supporters, lol, hahaha, go to Turkey today, and see the shaytani things they do in Turkey when compared to Saudi Arabia.

Then you can see which country is more "Islamic."

Nice to hear that. Anything is better than Wahabi culture. Btw, a shame that Pakistan has to import culture.



I do agree that its ridiculous to import another nation's creativity. We Pakistanis are capable of our own creativity.

Please don't use the term "Wahabi", you know you are using it as a pejorative.
 

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