In an unprecedented development in the world of Middle Eastern television drama, Arab satellite tv channel, MBC (Saudi-owned) will be airing a popular Iranian drama series this Saturday. The series called, Eghma (Coma in English) played to raving reviews on Iranian state television during Ramadan in 2007. It tells the story of a successful neurosurgeon who is forced to make a difficult decision after his wife becomes gravely ill. (the plot descriptions are very thin!) Iranian producers are hoping this will be the beginning of a successful campaign to bring more Iranian television productions to Arab audiences. Eghma, which has been dubbed into Arabic as Al-Wahm (mystery) by a Lebanese company, has been promoted as "cleaner" entertainment, particularly in comparison with the much racier Turkish series which have been criticized by some Arab religious leaders as un-Islamic and immoral.

This is also part of a larger and vigorous campaign by Iran to reach Arab audiences through news and entertainment  programming. In 2003, Iran launched its 24-news television channel Al-Alam (The World) in Arabic and last week, an Iranian satellite entertainment channel in Arabic called iFilm began broadcasting in Lebanon, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.