Egyptian Ramadan dramas have depicted security personnel from ideal to evil, depending on the political changes in the country.

2011: state security officer the “bad” guy

State security officers received a lion’s share of the public fury during the January Revolution. There were calls for abolishing the state security service and prosecuting a number of its senior officials for their crimes.

Egyptian Ramadan dramas have depicted security personnel from ideal to evil, depending on the political changes in the country.

2011: state security officer the “bad” guy

State security officers received a lion’s share of the public fury during the January Revolution. There were calls for abolishing the state security service and prosecuting a number of its senior officials for their crimes.

Accordingly, the series Adam, which was broadcast on a number of satellite channels, reflected the state security’s behaviour represented by Seif Alhadidi, a security officer who uses his power to abuse citizens.

2012: reconciliation and trust restoration

The end of 2011 witnessed campaigns calling for reconciliation between the police and the people, and for restoring confidence in preparation of the return of the Ministry of Interior to the scene after their withdrawal during the ‘Friday of Anger’.

Drama was the tool used by those campaigns including Khotot Hamra (‘Red Lines’) in 2012, starred by Ahmed El-Sakka who attempted to present a better image of policemen.

2013: Muslim Brotherhood takes the lead

When the Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi took power in mid-2012, a group called ‘Bearded Officers’ demanded the right of security personnel to grow beards but the Ministry of Interior denied this demand. With the expanding gap between the Muslim Brotherhood and the opposition, the Ministry managed to come back to politics through flirting with the Egyptian people and showing them that the police was not intending to oppress the demonstrations against the Brotherhood, unlike what happened during the January Revolution.

Here, the drama played a role in attacking the Brotherhood and its history through the series Preacher presented in Ramadan 2013, which embodied the gap between the group supporters and opponents. However, the Egyptian drama also presented a model of policemen supporting the religious current through the series Underground starred by Amir Karara, a police officer who joined a terrorist group but was ultimately arrested by security forces.

During the 30 June 2013 events, the most prominent since January Revolution, the police restored their stronghold after what looked like renewing trust in the security forces. Still, there remain voices calling for MoI restructuring and stopping all police behaviours before January Revolution.

However, repression returned again with the new political crises at the end of 2013 including the pogroms while storming the Rabia Al-Adawiyya sit-in, the Republican Guard, the issuance of demonstration law, and the hunt against a number of politicians and the press.

2014: banning year

The Egyptian drama resumed presenting the police performance through the series Hunter starred by Yousef al-Sharif and which presented a number of corrupt policemen.

On the other hand, the government issued an order banning the series People of Alexandria, written by Bilal Fiddah and starred by Amr Waked and Basma and which presents the period before January Revolution, namely in 2010.

Using a number of social viewpoints, this series tries to show and find solutions for the corrupt behaviours in the Egyptian government including the MoI (especially the police), Ministry of Information and the business community.

The author, Bilal Fiddah said that the banning decision came not only because of the content (negative image of police officers) but also because a number of the participating artists support the revolution and are against the ruling elite.

Art critic, Tarek el-Shenawi explians that some TV and cinema productions like Heen Maisara and Le Chaos presented a number of police role-models, which caused numerous crises with the then Minister of Interior Habib El-Adly.

Consequently, a number of writers tried to compromise with MoI after its crackdown. The series Hadrat El-Dabet Akhi [The Officer is my Brother] was an attempt to please Habib El-Adly. El-Shenawi maintained that “no one can deny the existence of security forces interferences intended to control certain art productions and keep it “on track”.

El-Shenawi explained that the name of the title of Hani Ramzi’s ‘Officer and Four Cats’, for example, was changed into ‘Lion and Four Cats’ by the security sponsor. Likewise, the series People of Alexandria was banned, which meant that all art productions first had to be monitored by security forces.

El-Shenawi claimed that controlling art productions was not the right way to change the public image of the police since this image was created by the direct confrontation in the street and repressive performance of the police.

2015: “individual cases” back again

With the repressive practices of certain policemen back on stage and the security restrictions in a number of sectors, including the press and the media,  Egyptian dramas tried their best to embody such practices and restrictions in the series After the Beginning, which was broadcast in Ramadan 2015.

2016: police officer is a hero

Despite the increasing police brutality (described as “individual practices” caused by “fighting terrorism”), drama productions this year have tried to present a positive image of the police officer as someone sacrificing his life for the good of society. This has been clear in a number of series including Caesar (started by Yousef al-Sharif), which presented the struggle between takfiri groups and the police who chase them risking their lives.

However, all this has not changed the Egyptian citizens’ concept of a police officer. Writer and art critic, Magda Khairallah said that the Egyptian drama draws its models from reality. It presents both good and corrupt models of policemen but there is a deep-rooted stereotype among citizens because of the police practices before the revolution, part of which are still existent.