A Family Planning Story
You never know what a music or language question will reveal.
One day I got a text from one of the dancers in Shannon’s Monday night intermediate class. She asked me
“Hey Debbie! Do you know what hasanen means?”
My guess was that the word she was hearing was “Hassaneyn”, which would be the dual form of the name Hassan- “two Hassans”. As this is the name of one of the prophets grandsons, meaning that two Hassans are better than one.
This can also be seen in in “amarein”- “amar” (moon) is a way to refer to a pretty girl/woman- so “two moons” means she is really, really pretty. Or “marhabtein”- when someone greets you with marhaba means welcome so when you answer “marhabtein” it is I greet you twice as much.
“Is it pronounced hasanin or hasaneyn?”
“With the I- at least that’s how it sounds to me. It might just be a name…but I can’t figure it out.”
“There is a name pronounced “hasaneyn”, what context did you hear it in? If you want to send me something to listen to you can. I don’t think “hasanin” is a word but it might be something that sounds close to that, if it’s in a song or something.”
“Yeah it was a song. Shannon plays it a lot it’s Drumspyder.”
What?? “Drumspyder?”
Next followed a youtube link, with an awful cover image of a mostly naked girl writhing around a shisha on top of some vaguely “oriental” textiles. It said “Harem Club and Chillout Remixes” at the top. I played it and indeed thought I heard Hasaneyn and also Mohamedeyn. Those were almost the only words over a lounge-y mix with a saidi touch, but the vocal sample had kind of an “antique” quality so I guessed it was an older song.
“He is saying “Hassaneyn and Mohammadeyn” those are both names. I’m pretty sure it’s an older song.”
Yasser happened to be visiting at that time and was in the other room, so I called out “Hey Hani, have you heard a song about Hasaneyn?”
“Hansaneyn and Mohamedeyn? Of course. Everyone knows that song. It’s been around forever.”
So I quickly did a search in Arabic and found a song by Fatma Eid with the same name. After checking that it was indeed the same melody, I sent the link to Rev and said “That’s the original recording.”
Case closed I thought- another song mystery solved for someone. But by that time Yasser had made it into the room I was in and I learned from him that there was more to this song! He explained that it was released in the 80’s?? as part of a government family planning campaign, to encourage smaller families, and that it played on television all the time.
Me- “don’t tell me- the story is one of the brothers was smart and had fewer kids, and the other had too many- and the song is Saidi style because families in the Said tend to be bigger?”
“Exactly.”
Apparently the song was extremely popular- and I guess that this would be among the more effective ways to spread a message encouraging smaller families among Egyptians, there is no doubt that a catchy tune would at least stick in people’s minds. In the end, it’s an interesting case of the government using popular culture to influence people’s choices. And proof that even the simplest question can lead to a whole story behind a song.