There are many factors that affect the role of Arab women in society; such as a high level of illiteracy, lower socio-economic role. It can also be the grasp of customs and practices that inflict financial hardship like high dowries and expensive weddings. Regrettably, though, Arab media have continued to depict women in a manner that may have done more to exacerbate them than to alleviate these issues.
Positive Models and Movements
In the Arab world, stereotypical images of women as weak, docile, and submissive persist. The Arab media appeared to validate these misleading statements in a number of ways and thus helped perpetuate them. Such false representations are all the more troubling considering factual data today about women’s positions and status in the world.
The statistics indicate that women makeup one-third of the world’s workforce and account for two-thirds of overall working hours. Many women currently play a role in fighting this negative picture. And that’s by consciously opposing the practices and beliefs that devalue women as per their male counterparts.
In Jordan for example, Princess Basma Bint Talal launched the creation of the Jordanian National Women’s Commission (JNCW) in 1992. The next year, the Commission, Jordan ‘s highest policy-making institution on women’s issues and rights, adopted a National Women’s Agenda spanning the financial, regulatory, cultural, social, educational, and health spheres.
The Prevalence of Negative Stereotyping
The research on women’s representation in the Arab media is very limited, according to the Arab Women Development Report. But the studies undertaken to assess the image of women depicted in the Arab media have produced unexpected results.
Most studies, particularly those undertaken in the broadcast sector, focused solely on analyzing the drama content, like films, TV series… Or focused on the portrayal of women in commercials and video clips, ignoring other important programs like newscasts, political talk shows, social programs, and documentaries.
The study showed that 78.68% of women’s images were negative. Analysis of the representation of women in the Arab media-centered primarily on the emotional and psychological elements of their depiction. The use of women’s bodies as sexual objects or as a means of sexual gratification or arousal was identified to be the most offensive representation used in Arab media, accompanied by the portrayal of women who are, in any way, immoral.
