On April 2, 2020 and during this crucial time of the global health crisis, the Coronavirus Pandemic, the famous Lebanese comedian, Wissam Saad, also known as Abou Talal, criticized women and young girls who dance while using the “TikTok” application, and compared them to porn stars. In his ten-minute show, عمشان Show, which airs during the prime time of a well-known national Lebanese TV station AlJadeed, and prior to the daily bulletin, Abu Talal explicitly justified the rape culture and encouraged it by using an offensive and abusive language against women and girls. He blamed them for any act of rape or harassment committed against them because of the way they were expressing themselves on social media platforms, while harming no one.
Estimated to have at least a million people watching the show, Fe-Male launched a reactive campaign against the host of the show and the TV station, urging them to publically apologize to all women and girls who were targeted and offended by that hate speech, or to stop the show. The campaign which lasted for 24 hours, indeed resulted in two live official apologies, whereby the TV Station acknowledged the glitch in monitoring the content and the host admitted the mistake of the use of the offensive, hateful language.
You can check the campaign’s full case study on this link.
