Seduction queen now decided to pick up a singer’s career

BEIRUT - Elias Shartouni

 The Lebanese version of late American seduction queen Marlin Monro or the famous American singer Madona has been dominating the thinking and much of the conversations of the Lebanese and the Arab people.

Haifa Wehbi, first known for being selected as the first runner up in Miss Lebanon 1994, recently decided to pick up a singer’s career. Her first album whose video clips have more sexual seduction than music quality was sponsored by the Rotana production firm owned the wealthy Saudi Prince and nephew of Saudi Monarch al-Walid Bin Talal.

After her first album, Haifa’s activity was never limited to music alone. She started appearing in popular events to perform and entertain.

When the most popular Lebanese football team the Nijmeh Club hosted Brazil’s Flamengo with his veteran international star Bebeto, Haifa attended the occasion and performed as it was concluded.

“She is very pretty and popular and many people would like to see her coming to such events,” according to Ahmed Mkahhal, a Nijmeh fan. “You’d pay a huge sum to see Haifa but in the stadium, we could see her for as little as the game’s fee which was LL2, 000.”

Haifa was also scheduled to be present at the Beirut Marathon. Sponsors of the event said that they expected a greater turn with Haifa’s participation. “She is an attraction faction today. We invited her to our event to guarantee that we attract the biggest number of participants,” said one of the Marathon sponsors.

Sami Habr, a psychologist, told Alternative that the Haifa culture has been dominating Lebanon for the past few years. “People are not interested in politics or the unfavorable economic situation, all they care for is having fun and to them Haifa represents this luxury.”

Habr argued that most Arabs were frustrated about their sociopolitical and economic lives. “They were also repressed and felt the need to revert to simpler and entertaining stuff that filled their ideologically empty lives,” he said.

Habr added that the intellectual and ideological vacuum was coupled with rising globalization “which if scrutinized turned out to be in fact Americanization or imposing and promoting the American lifestyle on different cultures around the world.”

He also said: “Can you believe that while the Lebanese government was imposing further taxes, cutting on its funding of social welfare programs and while electricity went off often while its bill skyrocketed, people were preoccupied with Haifa singing during the Nijmeh game?”

Popular rumors had its that mothers did not allows their teenage male children to go to the game to spare them the sight of some “seduction.” Other wives also grounded their husbands who wanted to go see the diva.

“During the Nijmeh-Flamengo game, you could see Haifa for as low a rate as LL2, 000. But this is rare. If you want to see Haifa in some other party, you should pay a minimum of $100,” said Mohammed Gharaibi, a Nijmeh fan and a Haifa zealot.

“If it weren’t Haifa, it could have been Elissa, Nancy or Sherine. Arab female singers are everywhere,” Habr maintained.

“The problem is that several females in the Arab world perceive of this phenomenon as a sign of women liberty,” he said. “Well, they are wrong. This is the opposite of women’s liberty. It is ‘women for sale,’ of women who are at the disposal at of filthy rich Arab men.”

According to Abou-Samir Itani, “in the past men used to appreciate good voices of Um Kalthoum, Asmahan and Leila Mrad.”

Today, Abou Samir added, “they think that sexy looking female singers with sound-engineered voices are real art.” He also said that the young generation was missing a lot of “culture and art.”

“This what happens when you import a culture, twist it a bit, and apply it to your own surrounding,” Habr concluded in reference to the influence of Americanism on the different world cultures and the behavior of their respective peoples.