For the
last few months I have been ,observing g media production
in the Arab world in general and Morocco in particular. what i have notices was very interesting. Let us start with sitcoms.
Beside the fact that all sitcoms are always fully depended on one major
character who is in most cases a male rather than team work and equal
participation of many actors. This is not really our concern, the role of women
is what we are interested in. The way women are presented is what matters to us
and it is generally very provocative. In 2006 a very popular sitcom broad-casted
on the Moroccan TV 2M. "moul
taxi" in this sitcom while we find that most of if not all female
characters are presented as illiterate ignorant and superficial. The major
character that is male, is funny, nice, he is everything but ignorant. After
the films end all that stays in mind is the funny guy and the ignorant lady
which is not something that encourages women.
For example
the Moroccan TV channel Midi 1 sat Broadcasts a show called " Bidoun haraj
" without embarrassment . The show in each episode deals with one social problem
from smoking, rape to violence in society. The show tries to give a balanced
representation of all the views about any topic covered. For example, when
talking about violence the guests are from different disciplines; psychology, sociology,
religion and each one approaches the issue form a different view. When it comes
to episodes dealing with issues related to women. No women are interviewed. And
we find that everyone is allowed to give opinion but women even in an issue
that concerns women.
The representation
of women in the Arab media leads to the perpetuation of gender inequality. A
clear view in the content of Arab media reveals very in interesting facts
.while the Moroccan society is going through a very clear debate about women
and their role in society and how they should be allowed to get more visible
and active in the public sphere we find that the Moroccan media are living in
another world.
The way
Moroccan TV treats women can simply said to be improper .They are rarely interviewed
even when it comes to women related issues, like abortion, polygamy or sexual
harassment .TV programs rarely treat women related topics and even when in it
is done, only the male point of views are presented. The female point of view
in most of the cases is marginalized and they are the last to be asked for an
opinion.
Along side
with the unequal presence of women in Moroccan media sphere, the negative
representation is another problem. Women are always viewed in outdated and traditional
roles. They are always depicted as illiterate and ignorant house wives or even in
more offending roles such as opportunist and materialist gold diggers. Women are always disconnected from the public
life and in most cases the father or the son is her only eye to the outside
world.
The way
women are represented in TV perpetuates gender discrimination which in turn
steps in the way of the country’s development. Normally TV should be the
reflection of society but when we view the Arab TV we find that it reflects
some weird and kinky interpretation of Islam.
When it
comes to drama series the Egyptian and Syrian drama are the most popular in
morocco .the Syrian series always associate women as prisoners in the full
sense. Women are always dependent on a father brother or a husband. In one of
the most famous Syrian drama is" bab al hara " in this series women
are never seen outside home. The only way women can get informed about the outside
world is by looking through the bars of the window like a prisoner. The
Egyptian drama series suffer two major problems. The first is that they are
boring and they are all about the same story: someone being in love with
someone and they live until they die. As a viewer you find out that you have
wasted to hours of your precious life. The second problem is related the
representation of women. The first problem is not of our concern, but the
second is what I am interested in. Egyptian drama always views women as those
idealist creatures living in a fairy world or as an opportunist who doesn’t
hesitate doing anything to achieve their goals.
If we want women to be more active in the
public sphere and take a part in the economic and the social development in the
country then all gender discriminating media content should be rethought. We
are mentioning the way women are represented to have fun or just to wail about
it but because the negative view of women in media holds them back from better
participation in the development of the country. Discriminatory attitudes
revealed in media will certainly block women’s evolution and professional competence.
In real
life we see how women are contributing to every aspect of life although there
are many obstacles, but in media sphere we find another world. In spite of the
fact that we have, today, a large number of working women, and there is hardly
any field that does not have women representatives. We have women
administrators, entrepreneurs, doctors, police women, computer specialists,
politicians even media business is full of women performing all types of
activities. What media needs to depict and project is the image of a woman as a
serious partner in decision-making positions, a serious professional: doctor,
engineer, teacher or a politician.
The role
of media in shaping public opinion is something that no one can argue against.
Whether it is about football, politics or any other social matter what media
say and how they say it is quite important .it is clear that better
representation of women in media will certainly lead to the betterment of their
lives. The betterment of the representation of women in media is simply a must.
One explanation of the sexist portrait of women
in media stems from the fact that women didn’t have access decision-making and
position in the body of media administration. Many researches show that the
access to decision-making positions is very low. The National Moroccan Press Syndicate have
made lot of efforts to better the participation of Moroccan women in media. In
2001 the released a new report which states that women constitute only 26
percent of journalists in the country. The report revealed also that 1,755 men
hold a professional journalist card from the Ministry of Communication, as
opposed to 632 women.
The luck of representation of women in media
indicated that there is a lot of work to do.Making more efforts on having women actors in
the decision making body will certain serve the purpose of the betterment of
the portrait of women in media. The promoting of adequate and non gender biased
policies concerning the access of women to decision making positions may be a
good step. The example of Nigeria is an accurate when many women hold senior
positions in media institutions. For instance the Chief Correspondent of the national
daily newspaper in Nigeria, The Punch, is a lady called Ms Remi Oyo.in morocco
there many NGOs working on raising the awareness of the necessity for more
presence of women in media . In 2006 The National Moroccan Press Syndicate has launched an awareness campaign.
To be fair we need to say that morocco is on
the right track band there are a lot of efforts that have been made and a lot
to be made. for a long time morocco used to adopt a family code that is based
on strict and even literal
interpretation of Islamic laws,
which resulted a great deal of gender
inequality. The gender equalities resulted from the old family restricted every
aspect of women’s lives the actions of women form marriage into access to jobs.
For the last two years there have been many changes the reinforced the statues
of women either in public life on general or in media in particular. In 1993,
Morocco ratified the convention on the elimination of all forms of
discrimination against women but adopted reservations. In 1998, the government
created a ministerial department responsible for the status of women .In 2006
the minister of communication adopted a program that promotes equality between sexes
the communication sector. The Moroccan administration is getting sensitive
towards gender issues and so the media should do.
