''Howa wa Heya'', (“Him and Her”, “ هو و هي” ) is an
Egyptian television drama
An Arab television drama or Arab soap opera (also known as musalsal ( ar, مسلسل), plural musalsalat ( ar, مسلسلات)) is a television form of melodramatic serialized fiction. The musalsalat are similar in style to Latin American telenov ...
, that aired for the first time during
Ramadan in 1985. It featured many prominent contemporary artists in key roles, with movie stars
Soad Hosni
System of a Down (also known as SoaD or simply System) is an Armenian-American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Since 1997, the band has consisted of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards); Daron Malakian (guitar, vo ...
, in her sole television role, and
Ahmed Zaki.
The married couple drama, or dramas rather, were written by Sanaa al-Bisi and adapted by
Salah Jahin
Muhammad Salah Eldin Bahgat Ahmad Helmy (, ), known as "Salah Jaheen" or "Salah Jahin" ( ar, صلاح جاهين, ; December 25, 1930 – April 21, 1986) was a leading Egyptian people, Egyptian poet, lyricist, playwright and cartoonist.
Life ...
into a screenplay in a rare
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a di ...
in Egyptian television, where the same actors played different characters and storylines in each of its ten episodes.
Hosni was awarded the
Transtel (now part of
Deutsch Welle) Prize at the
African Union of Broadcasting
The African Union of Broadcasting (AUB, french: Union Africaine de Radiodiffusion, ar, الاتحاد الأفريقي للبث, Alaitihad al'Afriqiu Lilbathi, pt, União Africana de Radiodifusão) is a professional body composed of the national ...
conference in 1985 for her role in the series.
Plots
''Howa wa Heya'' is based on a series of short stories columnist Sanaa al-Bisi wrote in
Al-Ahram
''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...
in the early 1980s about a range of social issues couples faced.
Each episode presented Hosni and Zaky as completely different couples: dating, marrie