Broadcast since February 8, 2023 on Netflix, The Exchange has already won the hearts of subscribers. The streaming platform specifies that the series is “inspired by real events”. Did the characters of Munira and Farida really exist?
Available since February 8, 2023 on the Netflix catalog, The Exchange quickly rose to the top of the most viewed content of the moment, all over the world. This first Kuwaiti production follows two pioneers who fight to make a place for themselves in a world of men. Indeed, the six episodes feature Munira (Mona Hussain) and her cousin Farida (Rawan Mahdi), the first two women to have joined the Kuwait Stock Exchange at the end of the 1980s, in the midst of the stock market crash and on the eve of the Gulf War. On the series sheet, Netflix specifies that The Exchange East “inspired by real events”. But what parts of the story really are? Did Munira and Farida really exist? Nadia Ahmad, co-creator of the soap opera, confided in this subject.
The Exchange : the two heroines of the Netflix series are fictional characters
At the risk of disappointing more than one, Munira and her cousin Farida didn’t really fit into the stock market. However, although they may never have lived and worked in Kuwait in the 1980s, their stories mirror those of women of the time. To create her heroines, the screenwriter and co-creator mainly inspired by his mother: “My mother was a single mother – she was solely financially responsible for me and she wanted the best for me. So she entered the world of investment banking, and I was constantly surrounded by women who were also doing the same. thing, which broke the stereotypes of Khaleeji women [peuple de la péninsule arabique].”With The Exchange Nadia Ahmad wants above all to tell the story of pioneering women, because “they were the first to enter these male-dominated spaces.”
The continuation under this advertisement
The Exchange: the Netflix series is making a lot of noise in the Emirate
It is mainly “because of the language barrier”that Kuwait took a long time to establish itself on the international artistic scene, explains the Kuwait Times. Al Raianother local newspaper, claims that this series has much talked about in the Emiratein part “thanks to its depth and the fact that it tackles a story that had never been brought to the screen”. The co-creator specifies that “Kuwaiti women who defied the world and entered male-only workplaces would not have nothing accomplished without the support of men who believe in the contribution of women to decision-making in all areas.”
Article written in collaboration with 6medias
