A Call To Prayer Becomes A Debate Over Decibels

The adhan, or call to prayer, is a 1,400 year-old oral tradition in the process of change in Cairo, Egypt. In 2004, after generations of having muezzins—the man who calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret of a mosque—make the call, the Mubarak government decided to make a change. They began to replace Cairo's approximately 200,000 muezzins with a single radio broadcast. Host Frank Stasio talks with documentarian Anna Kipervaser about her film “Cairo In One Breath” that documents this moment of transition and voices the concerns of the muezzins and people who visit the city’s mosques. “Cairo In One Breath” premieres at The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival tomorrow at 1 p.m.