Hadj-Moussa 285as they are replaced by television. In particular, she notes that he “for-
gets that this older form of entertainment, with the imaginary nonlo-
cal worlds it conjured up, was only available to men... Television gives
women, the young, and the rural as much access as urban men to sto-
ries of other worlds.”^42 Television allows women (especially those that
do not work outside the home) to link up with public space, and it
opens new horizons. “We have seen,” says Hakima, a courageous medi-
cal doctor working in a small public clinic 85 kilometers from Algiers,
“women who sell their jewelry in order to acquire a satellite dish. They
were ready. Because with television one can escape the gloominess of
the everyday; so when they turn it on, they see things, they see people
thinking.” The examples presented by satellite television “force national
television to broach taboo questions such as AIDS” and women are dis-
covering the existence of a self; or at least, like this young woman, dare
to name the existence of such a self. In a statement that was probably
intended to express a will for individuation, she said: “You know, there
was a woman psychologist on MBC who said that we Arabs do not feel
it when our psyche, al-nafs, is not well. We are only concerned by our
physical organs.” The Brazilian, Mexican and even Arab soap operas that
are broadcast on satellite and national television reveal hidden realities
that are censored in everyday life, realities such as incest, amorous liai-
sons, marriages based on love and “strong women that prod men into
conformance” (Abla, 38 years old).
n order to determine the extent of these disturbances, we need to I
consider the term “diversion” in both the sense of entertaining distrac-
tion and in the sense of detour, deviation and variation. Indeed, it is not
men alone who seek diversion and who take up critical positions vis-à-vis
national television. In fact, if women prefer Egyptian to Algerian films,
“it is not because of the content but how it is shown, with what setting,
with what clothes, with what manner of speaking. Women can go to
Egypt without any problem. They know the language. You know women
love what is mad.mūm [concise, precise and condensed]” (Naima, 23 years
old).^43 Foreign soap operas give access to the different, access that women
will manipulate, embroider and integrate into their daily lives.
f it is undeniable that political reporting occupies a prominent I
place in viewing habits, especially the habits of men, pure entertainment