Ahmed Moustafa writes
In short, (Banat al-Rif/ Country Girls) is a story that may seem traditional but is very profound. It was written, acted, and directed by the great Egyptian artist “Youssef Wahbi Bey”, who presented the role of (Mohsen), a law student and later a judge, and the novel went out as a film to show in 1945, with the biggest heroine of the theater at the time, the great artist “Fatima Roshdy” (who played the role of the innocent maid Setita, whose family serves the wealthy Mohsen family).
However, he also introduced her to the theater in the sixties of the last century, so that Mrs. Amina Rizk, one of the greatest women of Arab theater, replaced the great Fatima Roshdy, and through his troupe (Ramses Theater Troupe), which graduated many great artists in the past.
In short, the story tells that after the spoiled boy (Mohsen), a law student and son of a wealthy family, deceived his simple rural maid Setita and raped her after making her drink alcohol, he abandons her and even accuses her of stealing his precious diamond ring.
She is arrested and goes to prison, and gives birth to their son in prison, then the years pass and the boy grows up to turn into a criminal, and this son is accused in a case of robbery and murder.
As fate wills, Mohsen will become the judge who will hear this case, and during the narration of the son’s lawyer, and then the mother/Stetia who asks to speak to the court, who may affect her when she tells her story, the story of the social injustice she has been subjected to in her life since her rape, and then the stigma of theft and loss of honor.
Mohsen meets his son’s mother, Steita, who also came to defend her son, asking her for forgiveness, and stepping down from hearing the lawsuit because he somehow found himself a party to it (adversary and referee), which is contrary to the judge’s work.
The story, despite its simplicity, but it is intense – in addition to the fact that there is the scene of the trial and how the artist Mrs. Amina Rizk dealt with the utmost professionalism, as if she were not on stage, and the people who lived through the theatrical performance said: “We were crying in this scene as if we were in a trial of our consciences” – because through her words she acknowledged the truth of its significance that “laws were created only for the weak, and that there is no justice that does justice to the poor” As for the Rich and the powerful, they do not deal with partners in society with any law, except through Their own laws, which are above any man-made laws, are above human beings.
The strange thing is that the great artist Youssef Wehbe presented almost three films of the same type of melodrama or social tragedy, so he presented (Children of the Rich) and (Children of the Poor), and in the three novels he talks about the same heinous rape incident carried out by one of the sons of the rich to a poor girl – and that the society in which we live is not a society of justice and fairness – and this was before the middle of the last century and the twentieth century.
Although these novels are literary, they have great political significance, and the case of this peasant, who was raped and accused of theft unjustly, may apply to the case of Palestine and the conflict surrounding it.
We find that the influential countries in the West represent the role of Mohsen, this rich young man and his family, which even see it as a shame to equate Mohsen, the son of the wealthy family, with Sitita, the daughter of servants, – especially when we hear and see the statements of Western politicians when comparing the people of Gaza who are killed daily and some Israelis who were killed, perhaps by Israeli counter-weapons in response to the October 7 operation.
Here there is moral decadence due to the inequality between human beings recognized by all monotheistic religions, as well as forgetting that the Arabs are descendants of the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) from his son Ishmael, and the true Jews are his descendants because they are the descendants of Isaac and not the ones who are currently coming from the diaspora of unknown origins – those who exist are settlers who are not the Semites.
The international community does not differentiate much from our societies, it does not differentiate from the major colonial powers (America, Britain, France, and Germany) in the subject of international law in anything. If we review history, we will find that the four countries committed crimes of genocide in all the countries they occupied, or destroyed since the eighteenth century, with the emergence of attempts to occupy weaker countries, due to the emergence of Western capitalist societies, and mass production thanks to the discovery of the power of steam.
The second point – this crooked West is currently trying to impose certain values that do not suit our Eastern, Arab and Islamic societies, such as accepting the “gender revolution” to strike at the foundations of the family in our societies. These are the things that plague these societies based on individualism, which allow the son to imprison his father if he tries to correct his morals, or the police to interfere in the family discipline between parents and children, as we have seen in Germany recently. The German police tried to obtain the children of a Muslim and non-Muslim family opposed to that gender revolution.
Here there is a second Western moral decay because of our accusation of “retardation” from their point of view. Because of our attachment to the natural family and the natural relationships between human beings. Those relationships that safeguard the human race and public health.
The third point is that if an Israeli kills an Arab citizen, imprisons him unlawfully, or injures him, this is turned a blind eye to him and we are always asked for restraint – but if, after more than 75 years of Western negligence, the Palestinian defends himself; tries to obtain an equal share of life, and liberates his land from the occupation army and settlers, who have no right to the land, with a painful absurd scene in which the Palestinian is forced to demolish his house by himself and in front of his neighbors and by court order; the Palestinian is always considered as a terrorist.
Here there is a double standard that has no limit and is unprecedented – where was the human universal conscience from all this injustice against our brothers in Arabism, religion, and humanity?! We do not forget how the war on Iraq took place, and through the lies of the American Secretary of State at the time (Colin Powell), and the killing of a million and a half innocent Iraqis and subjecting them to torture through the Abu Ghraib prison – what happened in Libya – what happened in Somalia – what is still happening in Syria – and what happened in Lebanon in the past – if we review all that, we will know who the real terrorist is.
The fourth point is that international organizations because of the headquarters state, as most of them are in the West, unfortunately, treat with their employees as if they were the property of the headquarters countries, whether in America, Switzerland, or Austria. Therefore we saw the entity’s ambassador trying to force the resignation of the Secretary-General because of his words that have done justice to Palestine, claiming that Western countries are the largest material contributor to them compared to other countries. The claim is that America and the West pay the contributions of other poor countries annually.
Therefore, we do not find really fair positions on the side of the issues of the south, especially the issue of the century, the “Palestinian cause”. We find that any resolution condemning Israel in the Security Council, despite the supporting documents, for decades, has been rejected because of the tripartite forces of evil (America, Britain, and France), and most importantly, such as Japan and the UAE, which had a shameful role in the Security Council recently for personal interests.
We find that America and its pro-forces such as Britain and France are trying to play the role of adversary and referee at the same time, as we saw in the play, Mohsen (the aggressor) on Steita, is the same judge who tries her son.
International law applies only to our countries, while Israel and the West do not apply international law because they are the ones who play with this law.
What is beautiful and interesting is that according to Israeli media reports themselves, the new generation in Europe and America, for example, does not see Hamas as a terrorist group, and they line up and stand by legitimate Palestinian rights, and also the majority of young people currently see that Israel is a terrorist entity and should not be supported.
As mentioned in international media reports, social media has become like magic that turned against its owner and has become a tool in the hands of Arab and Muslim youth and supporters of the Palestinian cause, and therefore they try to obfuscate it, but young people, praise be to God, in our region also know how to deceive artificial intelligence and the algorithms of these sites and spread their idea and point of view.
In the end, the West must recognize that the world is different, and if the West does not respect the new world movement, become a party to it, and accept multilateralism, it will have no future. There are also several reports confirming that many young people in our region are rethinking of traveling to the West to study or work because of racism and double standards, which is not the first time after what happened in Ukraine before the Gaza issue.
