red pill<\/a>\u201d theory, popularised by figures such as Andrew Tate, whose influence in the region intensified after his conversion to Islam in late 2022. The doctrine frames men as victims of a feminist, \u201cgynocentric\u201d social order and urges them to reclaim power through dominance.<\/p>\nElayan uses a variety of comedy characters to help her critique the society around her. Photograph: Amelia Dhuga<\/p>\n
One podcaster, calling himself Dr Abdullah Mohammed, has 749,000 Instagram followers for a show called Be A Man, which promotes rigid gender roles, with videos suggesting that instead of helping his wife with domestic work, a man should marry a second wife so the women can assist one another. Others dispense advice on cheating discreetly or asserting dominance within marriage. Language used towards women is often dehumanising.<\/p>\n
One point of contention among influencers is the fact that women are choosing to marry later in life. \u201cThey are blaming women for declining birthrates, changing social norms and the spectre of \u2018family breakdown\u2019,\u201d says Abou Abdallah.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to poke fun at misogynistic subcultures,\u201d she says, \u201cthe podcasters who fixate on women \u2018refusing\u2019 to marry young, yet their own behaviour is the very reason many women want nothing to do with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abou Abdallah says the Smatouha Minni series began in 2020 \u201cout of necessity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an extreme lack of feminist literature and media in the region. We wanted to create something culture-specific,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
At the Gemmayzeh apartment, Elayan says she has been aware of the absence of such content since her childhood. \u201cWhen I was younger there was a lot of secrecy surrounding taboo subjects, especially those that affected women. Everything, from sexual and reproductive health to harassment, consent, domestic violence and the pressures around marriage, were treated as taboo.<\/p>\n
double quotation markOnce we make someone laugh, we have disarmed any potential defensiveness and can introduce new ideasAbou Abdallah<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are issues that shape young women\u2019s lives. Yet they remained unspoken, wrapped in shame or treated as moral failings rather than social realities.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there was little to help in Arabic, English-language media did not suit either. \u201cThey would address the issues well, but I never felt like they truly applied to the position I was in,\u201d she says. \u201cOne big difference is the fact that the Arab world is centred around collectivist culture \u2013 family, social structures and communal responsibility are key. Western feminist models are often incredibly individualist, so they do not map neatly on to our local reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abou Abdallah founded Khateera, the media house behind Smatouha Minni, with the support of Womanity, an NGO that invests in media solutions to gender inequality. Elayan, who had worked with her on the comedy platform YallaFeed, joined the project a few months later.<\/p>\n
Smatouha Minni (You Heard It From Me) has hundreds of thousands of viewers. Photograph: Courtesy of Amanda Abou Abdallah<\/p>\n
YouTube was the obvious platform for the series. \u201cYouTube allows for longer-form, nuanced storytelling where satire, explanation and context can coexist,\u201d says Abou Abdallah. It also enabled the show to reach young women.<\/p>\n
The company was registered in Germany, allowing the creators to avoid local media censorship and the instability of Lebanon\u2019s economy. The satirical shows are presented in Arabic with English subtitles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people would have found it condescending if we just lectured them on feminist values,\u201d Abou Abdallah says. \u201cThe quips and caricatures help us critique society in an entertaining way. Once we make someone laugh, we have disarmed any potential defensiveness and can introduce new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first season sparked immediate engagement when it aired in June 2020. Viewers wrote in, describing how episodes shifted their perspectives and gave them the vocabulary to challenge harmful or conservative views.<\/p>\n
Elayan says she is careful not to position herself as a counsellor. \u201cI always make sure they know they\u2019re not alone,\u201d she tells me. \u201cBut whenever the issue is beyond what we can responsibly handle, we guide them toward people who are qualified to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show is now into its third series. Photograph: Amelia Dhuga<\/p>\n
The second series cemented a fanbase. \u201cAcross the seasons, each episode on average has gained around 250,000 to 300,000 views,\u201d Abou Abdallah says. The show has also attracted male viewers \u2013 about 24.9% of the audience.<\/p>\n
Backlash came as well. \u201cHateful comments are often left on our videos,\u201d Abou Abdallah says. \u201cBut we are not interested in extremes. We have already lost that battle. People on the fence are the ones I want to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first four episodes of season three were filmed in November 2025, with a second set scheduled to be shot in April, but when the war in Iran spilled over into Lebanon<\/a>, production was postponed. \u201cThe war impacted us a lot, mentally and professionally,\u201d Abou Abdallah says. \u201cWe are waiting for a more stable ceasefire before continuing.\u201d<\/p>\nHowever, the team decided to go ahead with the 22 April launch of the completed episodes of season three, which addresses the social norms and systems that place blame on women. <\/p>\n
One of the episodes explores the relationship between mothers and daughters. \u201cA mother who has lived as a victim of patriarchal systems often becomes the enforcer with her daughter,\u201d says Abou Abdallah. \u201cIt\u2019s not out of cruelty, but out of protection.\u201d The episode offers advice on how to overcome this dynamic, encouraging women to redirect their focus to teaching their mothers what they have learned.<\/p>\n
The long term goal is policy change. \u201cTo get there, you have to spark the conversation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Beirut\u2019s Gemmayzeh neighbourhood a rented flat has been transformed into a film set: bright studio lights in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-636227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}