By Ramadan Abdel Kader
A retired Egyptian actress has recently triggered a massive controversy after she distanced herself from acting and reignited a long-standing debate on the religious view of art.
Hala Shiha, a wife of famed Muslim preacher Moez Masoud, fired the first salvo in the polemics when she published an Instagram post lashing out at pop star-actor Tamer Hosny for releasing a music video based on “Not Me” a film they co-starred more than a year ago.
The video features romantic scenes that Shiha said Hosny had earlier promised not to show in the now-trending clip. The film itself has been released to public showing and is proving a box-office hit, according to media reports.
The 42-year-old actress said she was “surprised” by the release of the video in the current Islamic month of Dhu Al Hijjah, during which the annual Hajj pilgrimage is performed and the Eid Al Adha feast is celebrated.
“This clip doesn’t please God,” she wrote. “I cried when I saw myself in these scenes. They were a mistake that I made due to certain circumstances,” Shiha added without elaborating.
“I’ve repented for these scenes. They were wrong. I made a mistake and am trying to set things right. What matters most is that God will be content with me. Eventually, what benefits us will not be fame or success which is not real success.”
Addressing her colleagues, Shiha said: “Maybe we have made success based on this world’s criteria. But believe me, we haven’t been and will not be successful by God’s criteria.” She cited what she called the “allure of fame and success”, saying they distract people from “gauging” things well.
“Art, which distracts us from God’s path and prevents us from being a good example for our children, is invalid and isn’t art per se,” the mother of four added.
Lashing back at Shiha, Hosny denied he had promised her to remove the romantic scenes from the video and accused her of failing to honour commitments towards the makers of the film. The iconic singer also voiced surprise at the ex-actress’ reaction to the video.
“The film has been showing for three weeks in cinemas and the clip is part of the film. For you, is it religiously sinful that we released the clip on YouTube only while it is OK to watch it in the cinema? This is a bizarre logic,” Hosny wrote on Facebook.
He also reminded her that she had signed a contract and earned an undisclosed big sum of money for acting in the film. “Wasn’t you the one who acted in it of your own free will or did anyone force you to appear in it?” Hosny argued that the controversial video is romantic and it was logical to include their scenes in it.
The uproar has evolved beyond Shiha and Hosny, though.
Several members of the entertainment community jumped in the fray, grilling Shiha about what they called “inconsistency”.
Producer Mohamed El Adl described Shiha’s remarks as “sinful”. In a series of tweets, he told her: “If you see what you did [acting] is against religion, then return the money you earned.”
The actors’ union, without initially naming Shiha, said it would not stand by and watch “attempts to distort art and creativity”.
The union added in a statement that it “vehemently rejects all attempts, reviving obscurantist thinking” allegedly spread by retired artists. “Talent is a grant from God to the creative people, not a sin,” it said.
Later, the union announced revoking Shiha’s membership.
Breaking silence, Masoud, Shiha’s husband, stepped in and voiced support for her. “Our journey is that of searching for right, good and beauty. It is a journey of taking pride in our culture and identity. It’s a potent model rejecting extremism on both sides: the one that is shy of its identity and emulates the West … and the second that is imprisoned inside moulds alien to thinking and arts,” the 43-year-old TV preacher said.
“Only brave people like you are the ones who make this journey sincerely and resolutely until they reach the destination, regardless of the large number of stops, pain, confusion, attacks, let-down and outbidding,” he added, addressing his wife. “Only brave people like you are the ones who take stock of themselves, acknowledge their mistakes and correct them.”
Born in Cairo to a father, who is a painter and a Lebanese mother, Shiha made her acting debut in 2000. She has since appeared in a string of films and TV serials. They include the hit comedies “Al Lembi” (2002), and “A Groom from a Security Agency” (2004).
In-between, she quit acting and donned the Islamic headgear. In 2018, she staged a comeback to acting after a 12-year hiatus.
