The 2010 TV production was meant as a sitcom. However, Ayza Aguz, or I Want to Marry, dramatising one of Egypt's most serious socio-economic problems, remains very valid and telling. Based on a popular blog that appeared in book form with the same name in 2008, Ayza Aguz tells of the sufferings of a typical Egyptian girl, played by actress Hend Sabri, as she endeavours to build a family of her own. Ola, a well-educated young lady in her late twenties, finds herself in one embarrassing situation after the other, as she tries to fulfil her family's wish for her to marry. In Egypt, getting married is not one's personal decision. Rather, it is a decision shaped by others' views, as well as social and economic conditions. For instance, in the countryside, a girl must get married before she turns 20. In urban areas, the marriageable age may extend to the late twenties. If she still hasn't tied the knot by then, a young woman is branded as a spinster. This fear plagues Ola, the protagonist of Ayza Aguz. She succumbs to the traditional matchmaking in which a prospective husband, whom she has never met before, comes to her family's home to see her before proposing. She logs on to matchmaking websites in a desperate effort to land a suitable life partner. She even places an ad for a groom in a local newspaper. But all to no avail. In one gripping episode, the girl suffers a nervous breakdown because all her workmates have got married, while she herself hasn't. And when they turn to help her, they come up with men who propose to her as if she's a commodity, not a human being. One would-be suitor asks to "check" her; another wants her to be decently dressed; a third demands she should wear revealing clothes. "I don't want to marry! I don't want to marry!" a stressed-out, humiliated Ola explodes. In Egypt, there are an estimated 13 million people, including 9.5 million women, who are over the age of 35 and still haven't married, according to recent governmental figures. The main reasons are high unemployment rates among young people and the soaring cost of marriage. Girls are the ones who suffer mostly in this male-dominated society that always blames women for whatever goes wrong. Although the problem has been growing in recent years, no nationwide initiatives have been launched to solve it. Significantly, at a gathering with President Morsi last week, female university students, chanted as they welcomed him: "Morsi will marry off the girls!"
