Talk

A Call To Prayer Becomes A Debate Over Decibels

WUNC | By Hady Mawajdeh,

Frank Stasio

Published April 9, 2015 at 12:05 PM EDT

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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.

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Hady Mawajdeh

Hady Mawajdeh is a native Texan, born and raised in San Antonio. He listened to Fresh Air growing up and fell in love with public radio. He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication at Texas State University and specialized in electronic media. He worked at NPR affiliate stations KUT and KUTX in Austin, Texas as an intern, producer, social media coordinator, and a late-night deejay.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio