The representation of women in the Arab media

 

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.