Ms. Farjallah grows animated, her elbows lifting from the table. “Some men,” she says, “take advantage of the Koran and say: ‘It is written, We can beat women. It is within our rights.’ “

Dialogue like this isn’t common in the Middle East, but it’s being dished out every day by Heya (Arabic for “she”) satellite television station, broadcast to an estimated daily audience of 15 million women, from illiterate denizens of remote villages in Egypt to Prada-clothed fashionistas in Beirut.

‘She’ TV gives voice to Arab women