SAT-7® Program on Abused Middle Eastern Women Selected for Prestigious TV Festival

Nicosia, Cyprus, June 1, 2010:

Along with programs from the BBC, ZDF (German national television) and other TV stations from all over Europe, SAT-7’s documentary, “Buthayna,” has been selected for screening at the European Television Festival of Religious Programs in Berlin 2-6 June.

70 programs from a total of 36 stations in Europe, Canada and the Middle East were entered into the competition, and “Buthayna” is among the 23 programs selected for screening at the festival.

The Festival is held every three years and provides an opportunity to present and reward the very best of European television programs that express, explore and examine values in relation to religion, faith and ethics. The Festival is organized by SIGNIS (the World Catholic Association for Communication) and WACC (World Association for Christian Communication) in cooperation with Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF).

Commenting on the programs selected the jury notes: “The quality of the programs has been good from the technical point of view as well as from the content. The subjects mostly followed the actual discussions of ethical values and socio-political developments like euthanasia, sexual abuse, torture and human rights. We appreciated the way the authors put on screen the spirituality of people in all kinds of program formats.”

“Buthayna” is one of the episodes of the documentary series “And I Am Not Just A Woman.” The series is part of a SAT-7 project which is shedding light on the challenges and rights of women who are the sole person responsible for their family. The project has had financial support from SAT-7 partners in the United States and Scandinavia. “Buthayna” and the other documentaries from Egypt have specifically been funded by the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Cairo.

Buthayna’s story illustrates some of the many struggles confronting female heads of households in the Arab world. Born in a traditional, Christian family, Buthayna has to marry the man her family chooses for her: Her cousin, who is a drug addict. The husband is also unemployed and violent. Buthayna has to work in factories to feed her five children and pay for the husband’s addiction. When he dies, she establishes a small business, producing springs for the spare-parts industry. Working in a male-dominated field is difficult for her, but she is fighting hard to provide a better life for her children.

The producer of the documentary is Juliana Sfeir, SAT-7 Lebanon, and the director is Michael Bayouh, Egypt.

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Launched in 1996, SAT-7 is Satellite Television Transforming the Middle East through Hope in Jesus Christ with U.S. headquarters in Easton, Md. SAT-7 makes Christ's message of hope available to every home in the Middle East and North Africa. SAT-7 consists of four channels: SAT-7 ARABIC, SAT-7 PARS (Farsi), SAT-7 TÜRK (Turkish) and SAT-7 KIDS (Arabic). SAT-7 has an estimated 15 million regular viewers (Intermedia research, 2009). Broadcast in three languages—Arabic, Farsi and Turkish—SAT-7 can be viewed via satellite in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, much of Central Asia and worldwide at www.SAT7.org For more information about SAT-7 go to: www.sat7usa.org. For more information about the festival visit: http://www.signis-wacc-festival.de

Date: 6/1/2010 10:16:23 AM