Gaza religious leader blames Turkish soap operas for illegitimate babies

Four babies have been deposited in front of mosques and social assistance centers in Gaza so far this year, and Arab media is buzzing about it.

The latest was on Saturday morning when a baby was found in front of a mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. The week before, a baby was left in front of an orphanage in Gaza City.

Gaza Sheikh Samih Hajjaj said that these children were probably illegitimate. He blamed the problem on a number of factors, including young people not complying with Islamic Sharia law, young men and women mixing in universities and other public places without any controls and without regard to the consequences, and a Turkish soap opera named "Forbidden Love"  may be responsible for an increase in incest.

This 2012 article describes how popular Turkish soaps are in Palestinian Arab homes:

Palestinians are in rapture with Turkish soap operas. They do not merely provide nightly entertainment but their influence shapes the image and style of the young viewers. Shirts, dresses, tights, styles of clothes, handbags, belts, and jewellery worn in the Turkish soap opera are highly coveted among Palestinian young women. The image: what and how to combine items of clothing, how to comport oneself, how to walk and what to talk is a style gleaned from Turkish televised dramas. Young men design their haircuts in emulation of their heroes; they put on stylish jackets, shirts, and pants whose styles fluctuate with the seasonal changes of Turkish fashions. The diversity, range of characters portrayed, and endless twists and turns of the plot attract a great cross-section of Palestinian devotees. Palestinians of all ages - grandparents, husbands, wives, young men and women, adolescents, children, and even toddlers - congregate nightly to see a mirror image of their “life” reflected on the screen and idealised into a polished legend; a surrogate reality.

And here is how "Forbidden Love" is described:

Al Ishq el Mamnu’ [Forbidden Love] is a contemporary social drama of love and incest. It is the story of one big extended family all sharing the same rambling house, buzzing with incestuous desires. Samar, the heroin, falls in love with the much younger handsome nephew of her husband, hence the title “Forbidden Love.” 

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