WOMEN, who have had all their abilities, talents, emotions, and all that make them human stripped away from them, are viewed in this man's world as either one of two things: saints or sinners, the archetypical Madonna or whore complex. Madonna or whore complex. This depiction of women has been represented in countless different art forms throughout history, and is in its way one of the most enduring stereotypes concerning female character. Film is no exception, since throughout the history of cinema this archetype too has been almost constantly present. Whenever there was a bad or "evil women" in present in film, there was always the "goodie-two-shoes" good girl also there, as if to balance things out. In a way, this image of the dual female nature was a method of manipulating society into thinking about how a proper woman should act. But how does that fare in real life? This is the story of Darine Hussein (not her actual name). She is a beautiful 27- year-old woman who at 20, ran away from her family and married a rich older man. She loved him; she loved the life he gave her, because he presented her with everything that was missing in her life. She came from a low-income family, and she had three siblings who were raised mostly by an uneducated mother due to the absence of her father, who travelled everywhere so he could make a decent living to support his family. She was a great student in high school, and ended up in law school. She considered herself religious; she prayed, fasted and did what was required of her to be a "good Muslim". She never felt complete; she was depressed, and tried to commit suicide on several occasions. The marriage, which she thought would save her didn't last, and she was pretty much used and thrown out by her rich husband. With nowhere to turn, she moved to the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh on her own, and tried to start a new life. That never worked out too well; she moved from job to job, with many failed relationships behind her with men who simply saw her as an easy target …quot; most of the men she met just took advantage of her. She fell in love with another man was in his mid 20's, from a well-to-do family. They got married urfi (a secret wedding), because she didn't want to live in sin anymore; but when his family found out, his father forced him to leave her …quot; and he did. He claimed he loved her, and would be able to figure out something. They continued their relationship, but a few months later, tired of living in "sin" again, she told him they must get married, even if it's urfi. So they did, and now she is waiting; a woman in hiding, lonely, and hanging on to the promises of her husband that he will one day make the marriage official. She has been hearing people whispering all her life that she is sinful, a whore, and other more sleazy comments. So is she a sinful woman or she is just a woman who had to deal with life's difficult circumstances, one that society may not agree with. Moral tales of popular cinema regarding women have often been translated into the virgin-whore dichotomy, visualised through "fallen women", prostitutes, or particularly in Egyptian cinema, the belly dancers. This is also apparent in the major box office hit film of the 1970s Khalli Balak min Zuzu (Take Care of Zuzu). The titled protagonist, portrayed by the legend Soad Hosni, is a charming young girl who grew up in a lower class family. Her mother is played by Tahiyya Karioka, who wants her daughter to have a different life than she did, and is shown to be overcome by this fear of such a possible future when she has a dream of her daughter dancing half-naked for men in a darkly-lit room, and then goes into a bedroom with one of the men. Zuzu does escape this horrid nightmare, and she doesn't fall into the world of belly dancing and prostitution, as they are typically seen as going hand in hand in most films. In the much darker film Bidaya wa Nihaya ("Beginning and End," 1960) the character of Nafisa, played by Sanaa Gameel, met her demise by committing suicide after pressure from her brother, a police officer, after he finds out that his sister turned to prostitution to support him. What's great and interesting though about the Nafisa's character in the film is that she wasn't one dimensional. There are reasons and a cause as to how she became the way she is. She is not a horrible person; she is actually a great human being who sacrificed her own happiness for others. In reality, she is the hero of the film …quot; she just went down a road which is seen in society as sinful and disgraceful. Even then, her intentions were for the survival of her family, not merely to be promiscuous. The movie doesn't just begin with her as a prostitute, but the audience gets to see how her life spiraled out of control. All these cases, though, were examples of a kind of the old wives' "bad woman tales", demonstrating through these tales examples of what a girl should not become, what paths should not be followed, and if they are, the consequences will be dreadful. These women were deemed sinful by society, but nowadays, society doesn't have to see a prostitute or a belly dancer to call her sinful, or damned, it takes a lot less than that. A girl wearing short skirt is sinful, a girl holding hands with a boy, a girl sitting with friends, who may happen to be boys, at a café or restaurant …quot; and there is always the girl who doesn't wear the hijab …quot; she is also sinful. With so many new films exploring thenew generation, made by the new generation itself, we do get an even bigger picture but a still slightly misunderstood description of how these characters act. Last year's film, Bidun Reqaba (Uncensored), in which I will simply try to disregard the horrible actors, the ghastly script, and direction; but the film's structure did explore the lives of college students (who incidentally looked nothing like college students), but it also did represent four female characters, in two specified groups, " the whores" played by Dolly Chahin and Ola Ghanim, and "the virgins", played by Maria and Randa El Beheiry. Chahin's character, who is sleeping with Ahmed Fahmy's character, is of course sinful because she sleeps with a man out of wedlock and isn't shy about admitting it either, but the man she loves doesn't show any interest in her except for in the bed room. Obviously, Fahmy's character isn't looking to build a relationship with the whore …quot; he wants to marry the "virgin" played by Maria. In my opinion, here only sin is that she wanted to be with someone who doesn't care for her. Then there's Ghanim's character, who is portrayed as an equal-opportunity whore, but we will just call her what she was a bisexual woman, with more interest in women, so in the context of the movie's presentation, she was on her way to becoming a "full-on lesbian." But instead of presenting some decent redeeming qualities about either woman, we see female characters seemly created for the express purpose of portraying their complete opposite, so as to point to what is defined as "good", and what is "bad". Sin is a tricky thing, like everything in life it's relative but Egyptian cinema try to make it cut and dry and that just doesn't work in real life?
