Al-Ahram Weekly 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999 Issue No. 457
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

'Kill them with your brilliance' Women are often portrayed as sex objects in the media. What are the alternatives? Participants from across the region debated the issue at a recent conference in Beirut. Mariz Tadros was there (photo: Lauren Goodsmith, Communication for Change)

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How should women be represented in the Arab media? Do we want more positive and more realistic representations -- and what happens when the two do not always mean the same thing? These were among the pressing questions that 30 representatives from the Middle East gathered to discuss at a conference on gender and communication policy. The conference was organised by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in association with the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, an affiliate of the Lebanese American University. WACC has held several workshops in different regions to follow up on international conventions on women and the media.

The four-day gathering in Beirut examined two principal issues: women's portrayal in the media and the conditions of women working in the media. Throughout the conference, participants reiterated the misrepresentations, inaccuracies and demeaning portrayal of women in the media -- at times, it even seemed that they could not move beyond these points. The dynamics that hinder change were only briefly discussed, conveying the impression that this was perhaps no more than an exercise in media-bashing (which would have been understandable, given that many of the participants were from academic or NGO backgrounds).

Although participants came from countries as diverse as Cyprus and Morocco, Lebanon and Iran, the use of stereotypes in representing women was a common bugbear. How do we move beyond the idea of women as sex objects? The question was debated extensively. Nasrin Mosaffa, a professor from Tehran University, noted that before the Islamic Revolution, women were always used as commodities in advertisement, and sex objects in the media in general. After the revolution, she asserted, women's bodies were no longer the focus of the camera's attention. Instead, new images of women as mothers, wives and agents of change in society were promoted.

Many participants, however, felt that if Mosaffa's account really reflected women's representation in the Iranian media, then it was only a matter of exchanging one stereotypical image --sex objects -- for another -- submissive wives. While it was agreed that images of women who choose to be housewives and mothers should not be replaced across the board with images of independent working single women, there also seemed to be a consensus among participants that there is too much of the former and hardly any of the latter.

Participants were also concerned that efforts to rid the media of a surplus of women's bodies would play into the hands of reactionary social forces whose objective is the total invisibility of women. In such a context, how can taboos be openly discussed in the media? Mosaffa, for example, admitted that sexual taboos are never discussed in the Iranian media.

Amina Khamiz Al-Dhaheri, a professor of mass communications from the United Arab Emirates, pointed out that issues such as rape and incest are not allowed to feature on UAE television either.

Boutheina Gibraa, director of CREDIF (Centre for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women) in Tunisia, complained of a systematic bias in Tunisian press coverage of women in official positions. Other women, she remarked, are marginalised to the point of invisibility.

But should women be presented as positive agents of social, political and economic change? Or is greater diversity in representation the key to accuracy? Another problem that the most committed feminist cannot ignore is the fact that women at the grassroots level are not the only members of society the media ignores: men on that level are often equally invisible.

It is in discussing measures to help change the portrayal and treatment of women in the media that some of the strongest and weakest points were made in the conference. Many participants expressed the need for a media-watch organisation -- a network of concerned individuals who could closely monitor the representation and treatment of women's issues in the local media and protest when representation is demeaning or unfair. Such an organisation could also lobby for change. NGOs should play a role in such monitoring activities, many participants agreed, and should also seek to establish stronger links with the media.

A certain naiveté, however, may have characterised the discussions of the role of NGOs and the extent to which they can bring about change in the media. One participant, for instance, suggested that a law should be passed prohibiting the representation of women as sex objects. Many wondered whether legal recourse would be effective, however. Again, would such a law mean that films featuring women's bodies should be censored?

There is no doubt, on the other hand, that the portrayal of women in scenes of sex and violence on film in particular often verges on the misogynous. Cases in point: one must only list the titles of some contemporary Egyptian films, cited by Azza Kamel, head of ACT (Appropriate Communication Technic): A Dangerous Woman; The Devil Is a Woman; A Woman of Ill Repute; The Curse of a Woman; Torture Is a Woman. Kamel suggested that scenes of violence against women are particularly popular among the audience targeted by such movies -- which, she argued, reflect the dominant discourse and ideology.

Zahra Quardi, secretary-general of Casablanca UAF Representation in Morocco, emphasised the importance of specialised women's publications which would provide alternative, and far more empowering, coverage of women's issues. Quardi pointed out that 8 March, a Moroccan newspaper issued on an irregular basis, has provided women with the necessary space to tackle their problems and call for emancipation. Such specialised women's publications, suggested Quardi, are advantageous in many ways: not only are they void of "how-to-have-lustrous-hair-while-losing-a-few-pounds" stories, but their features writers have extensive experience in addressing women's issues, even though they may not necessarily be journalists. On the downside, 8 March has gone for months on end without appearing because funds are so short.

There were also questions about the appeal of specialised feminist publications to the mainstream readership. One participant asked which was preferable: more specialised newspapers or greater change in the content of the mainstream press -- written by both men and women. (At best, however, there were only two men among the participants at the conference.)

On discrimination against women working in the media, May Kahale, advisor to former Lebanese President Elias Al-Harawi, spoke about her own experiences holding a post that was traditionally occupied by a male. When she decided not to interfere with the journalists' output on the president, and to relax censorship a little, she was sneered at by her male colleagues, who felt that, as a woman, she was too weak to be able to enforce the necessary "control" over the journalists she was working with. Women working in the media, especially those in high positions, are never judged only on the basis of their efficiency, she argued; they always have to struggle to prove themselves.

Magda Abu Fadil, coordinator of the journalism programme at the Lebanese American University, agreed with Kahale that women must work harder to reach the same position as men; but, she argued, women journalists also need to work on improving their language skills as well as "pushing the executive glass ceiling by being experts in areas not considered 'women's issues'." Abu Fadil herself spent many years covering the Pentagon, and enjoyed writing on defence and security issues. Her final piece of advice was to move beyond the victim mentality: "Kill them with your brilliance and charm. You'd be surprised how far you can go without doing something illegal, immoral or fattening."

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