TV review: Syrian School

Published on Wednesday 10 February 2010 18:02

Syrian School, BBC4

FOLLOWING enlightening visits to schools in Africa, India and China, the Open University cast its analytical gaze over two schools in Damascus in the first episode of Syrian School. Following a year in their lives, it attempted to construct a mosaic of life among the younger Arab generation by focusing on two pupils from different cultures and religious backgrounds.

Dua'a, who had memorised the entire Koran by the time she was 14, came from a devout Muslim family. Previously educated at a Sharia school run according to strict Islamic principles, she began her first term at a more liberal all-girl school in order to concentrate on her academic studies.

Yusif, meanwhile, was a football-crazy Christian Iraqi refugee who had escaped the bombing of Baghdad.

Clearly suffering from a mild form of post-traumatic stress disorder, Yusif flinched every time he heard a loud noise or bang. The invasion of Iraq had damaged him in other ways, not least the murder of his brothers as part of the sectarian violence which poisoned Iraq following the fall of Saddam.

In a telling aside, he also revealed that he had been due to appear before some influential football scouts until the western alliance decided to bomb his home. He conceded sadly that he'd probably missed his chance by now. His story provided a small yet telling reminder of the innumerable effects of war on innocent civilians. Yusif could have been a top international footballer if it wasn't for you, Tony Blair. I hope you're happy.

Elsewhere, Dua'a slowly came to terms with her new mixed-faith school, despite viewing her relatively progressive headmistress as a corrupting influence. With her raven bouffant and oversized sunglasses, the formidable Mrs Hassan resembled an ageing contessa from a Jackie Collins novel, as she encouraged her pupils to escape from the shackles of religious conformity. Dua'a, by contrast, argued that the hijab was in fact the apex of female liberation, rather than a uniform restriction. It felt like a confused claim, although I suppose it was a way for this ambitious young woman to justify her devotion while at the same time striving towards a kind of intellectual independence.

Such collisions of faith and ideologies are inevitable in a city slap bang in the centre of a tumultuous crossroads in the Middle East. Situated just a few hours each way from Lebanon, Iraq and Israeli occupied territory, Damascus appears to have allowed religious conservatism and cautious progressiveness to live comfortably side by side. But it is also dominated by the immovable Ba'ath Party whose skewed version of democracy was reflected in microcosm by a fixed election for new school prefects. Or rather, it wasn't, at least not entirely convincingly, since secondary school politics bear little relation to the inner machinations of dictatorship rule, but the director was obviously smitten by the vague comparisons.

The programme's only other fault was the needlessly repetitive narration, which often strayed too lazily into dryly descriptive "and as the sun sets in the east" travelogue mode.

Otherwise, this educational visit to a cultural and religious hotspot succeeded in imparting some insight into what life is really like for kids growing up in the Arab world. There are four more episodes to come in this series, and you are advised to watch them all. Class dismissed.