Some Fundamentalist Muslims in a Sweat Over Popular Cairo TV Aerobics Show

CAIRO — Samia Allouba has gained a wide following in Egypt for her 15-minute TV aerobics program called “Let’s Play.” But some of the country’s Islamic faithful object to it as sinful.

“Although it has a noble aim,” a woman teacher wrote in a letter to the newspaper Al-Ahram, “some of the movements should not be watched by older and younger men . . . to avoid embarrassment and to maintain our morals.”

Others say that Allouba’s clothing is immodest and her body movements provocative.

But the television station that carries her program says that most of the reaction to “Let’s Play” has been highly favorable, even though Islam is Egypt’s state religion.

Learned Aerobics in U.S.

Allouba, 35, learned aerobics in California, North Carolina and New York. After seven years of teaching dance exercise at her studio in Maadi, an exclusive Cairo suburb, she said she was determined to become the first woman with an exercise program on Egyptian television.

Two years ago she contacted the head of a Cairo television station who was about to purchase Jane Fonda’s aerobics programs.

“I said that would be stupid,” Allouba said in an interview. “There are Egyptian people doing it.”

“Let’s Play” has been a smash since it first went on the air a year ago, according to Samia el-Etrebi, director of women’s programs for Channel 2.

Program Praised

Random interviews on Cairo’s streets found high praise for the program. Both men and women said they tried Allouba’s movements and liked having a fitness program to watch. Several women wearing Islamic dress said they liked the program.

Egypt does not have an official audience-rating system, but el-Etrebi said that hundreds of letters and telephone calls poured into the government-owned station from all over Egypt after the first program.

Most women wrote to request more hip and abdominal exercises, el-Etrebi said, but men wrote just wrote to say they liked it. With time limited on Egyptian TV, the program had to be kept to 15 minutes and is aired only once a week.

Allouba has included her husband and two daughters in some of the program’s segments, which increased the appeal to everyone, el-Etrebi said.

Show Sold Aboard

She said the initial series of 13 programs has been sold to television stations in Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia--all Muslim--as well as to Japan. Channel 2 has repeated them continuously because of viewer demand.

But some viewers still want it taken off the air on grounds that it violates Islam, Allouba said.

“Some of the fundamentalists said it’s very sexy, it shouldn’t be on. . . . You shouldn’t have this breathing on TV.”

Islam admonishes women to dress modestly, which the strictly religious often interpret as keeping hair, shoulders, arms and knees covered in public.

Dress Code

Leotards worn for aerobics exercises don’t fit the interpretation, so Allouba first wore a long-sleeved tunic and slightly baggy leg coverings. Gradually she shifted to leotards and tights. But a sleeveless top she wore in one segment was too much for the program directors, and they told her not to wear it again.

Allouba said that despite Islamic sensitivities, she rejected the idea of giving up movements such as pelvic lifts.

“I don’t want to start thinking this will look sexy, because everything will look sexy and sound sexy if you want to think about it this way,” she said.

But she added that the Koran, Islam’s holy book, sanctions sports.

Taping a Problem

“It says a good, faithful person also should be healthy and should be doing sports,” said Allouba.