via YouTube and Aljaras

Egyptian cinema and TV have portrayed the country’s culture in rather interesting ways, don’t you think? Through our shows and films, we’ve come to see things like Mahraganat music and Egyptian social media portrayed. And we’ve also seen a lot of stereotypes portrayed as well, like the ‘All Omars Are Horrible’ stereotype.

Because of the prevalence of the last stereotype, though, we’ve decided that we’re going to round up the most notable (and horrible) Omars ever found in Egyptian cinema! 

Omar from Hob El Banat 

via El Cinema

Can you imagine being ghosted by your partner, who’s extremely fearful of commitment, only to have that very same person come back years later, divorced and with a kid, to ask you to try the relationship again? Fortunately, you don’t have to because this happened to Laila Eloui’s Nada in Hob El Banat. And guess what? Her ex was played by Ahmed Ezz’s Omar, providing the original template for the ‘All Men Named Omar Are Horrible’ stereotype.

Omar from Omar Wa Salma 

via YouTube

From the name alone, you can tell that Omar Wa Salma is about Omar, played by none other than Tamer Hosny, and a girl named Salma, played by Mai Ezz Eldin. This iconic Egyptian love story was punctuated by instances of Omar cheating on Salma and gaslighting her in the worst ways. So, no, we can’t say the story did anything to kill the stereotype. 

Omar from ‘An El ‘Eshq Wel Hawa 

via El Cinema

Alright, we must admit—’An El ‘Eshq Wel Hawa is different. It doesn’t lean into the stereotypes and shows Ahmed El Sakka’s Omar as an emotional, sensitive person who truly loves and is loyal to his girlfriend. That is, of course, until he discovers what his girlfriend’s sister does for a living and decides to end the relationship. And it gets worse, because Omar marries Esmat, who he doesn’t love, and proceeds to cheat on her with Salma. So, you could say it’s the stereotype’s origin story.

Omar from Zarf Tarek…Technically

via Dailymotion

Okay, so this might seem like a stretch, considering that Ahmed Helmy plays a man called Tarek in this movie, hence the movie’s name. However, ten minutes into Zarf Tarek, Tarek adopts the identity of a man named Omar and proceeds to go from a sweet if socially awkward man into the personification of the Omar stereotype.

Omar from ‘Esabet El Doctor Omar

via YouTube

We’re not sure of what we can say here, so we’ll just describe the plot of this movie. In ‘Esabet El Doctor Omar, a therapist called Omar cons all of his patients into unapproved, potentially dangerous ‘treatments’ AND starts a relationship with a mentally ill woman that he decides he should ‘fix’. Now that you’ve read this, we’re sure you know why this man is a horrible person. And, no, it doesn’t have to do with the stereotype behind the name—he’s just blatantly unethical!