The Arab region

Based on the regional report prepared by Atidel Mejbri of CAWTAR.

Introduction

Interview for the daily radio programme broadcast on the Internet by FIRE during the U.N. Special Session "Women 2000," New York, June 2000. (click to enlarge)

Media plays a crucial role in the construction of women’s images, and in orienting collective representations of and attitudes toward women. For this, it is necessary to raise the awareness of journalists and make them aware of their responsibilities to improve the portrayal of women in the media. Media perpetuates prejudices and stereotypes that underestimate women, devalue their contribution to development, and attributes negative qualities to womanhood. Media is a privileged tool for the transmission of information and ideas. It exerts an enormous influence on the region’s social context, and, consequently, on the nature of relationships between different sectors of society.

Television alone has held tremendous power over attitudes and behaviour since 1960. Eighty-five percent (85%) of children in Qatar spend four hours/day in front of the television. A survey conducted in 2000 by the Ministry of Youth and Sport of 10,000 young Tunisians between the ages of 15 and 29 revealed that 95% of young people watch television, 88.8% listen to the radio, and 70.7% read newspapers. A third of these young people spend one to three hours a day watching television.

These children and youth are exposed to thousands of messages – a way of learning that rarely incorporates educational and social values based on equality of the sexes. According to the rare studies conducted in the Arab world, these messages favour behaviours and attitudes that are destructive toward certain classes of society. The stereotypes spread through media favour the discrimination to which women and minorities are subjected. Youth between the ages of 13 and 35 represent 65% of the Arab population. There are currently 77 channels available by satellite in the region

Objectification, infantilization, domestic enslavement, victimization... these are the trends for women as represented in the media, according to a review by Adib Khadhour, which analyzes the profile of women presented in Arab studies, surveys and research on the question. Women are more likely to become victims, are weaker yet cleverer than men, and what they want is a husband or a traditionally female job.

In another study, Mokhtar Touhemi notes the gap between Arab media and the realities of rural women in the region. According to Touhemi, this gap with regard to rural women persists in research in this area. A number of national and regional studies and surveys confirm the aforementioned observations.

Information and Communication Institute for Higher Studies and the United Nations Population Fund have just released a study on "the image of women through media discourse in Morocco" in print and electronic media. Women are absent as citizens and social actors in Arab-language newspapers. Editorial space dedicated to women in French-language press is minimal. Moroccan television, however, promotes a positive image of women if one analyzes only the programmes. Women's social status overshadows their status as victim. Radio excludes rural women from its programming.

In Tunisia, the issue of "Women and Media" has recently become a subject of research. The first study was conducted in 1981 by the Union nationale de la femme tunisienne (National Union of Tunisian Women), an NGO. It was not until the 1990s that exhaustive, organized research, workshops and seminars on the subject began to take place.

The most recent was a study in 2000 by the Centre de Recherches d'Études de Documentation et d'Information sur la Femme (CREDIF), which reveals "the insignificant portion of articles published in sections on economy and regions" and that "feminine subjects are far more received material than researched material." According to this study, daily newspapers tend – to varying degrees – to exploit incidents involving women, putting women forward to bait readers and increase newspaper sales.

A study led by the Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) in four Arab countries, Tunisia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, includes a chapter analyzing press coverage of International Women's Day (IWD). The study listed 173 articles published before and after the eighth of March in the countries included within its sample.

Reporting on activities of the day made up 42.4% of the total volume of news reports. Despite the official celebration of International Women's Day and the organization of a large number of activities related to the day, there were only two editorials devoted to women in Tunisian newspapers. There were no editorials in the print media of Jordan, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. Given that the editorial expresses the choices and orientation of a newspaper, and the theme "woman" was neglected, it indicates that the newspapers in the study consider the promotion of the advancement of women not a very high priority.

In-depth and analytic articles represented only 20.2% of all published articles. Distribution by gender shows that articles signed by women represent an average of 55.7% of the articles in the four countries. Articles written by women are longer than those written by men.

The "status of women" and the "legal status of women" are the subjects most often treated in the journalistic material published in the countries included in the study on the occasion of IWD.

The press in Yemen devoted a large portion of its articles on women to the domain of politics; Jordan showed a similar distribution. The Tunisian press however devoted very few articles to this topic, and, in the United Arab Emirates, the press published no articles on "women in politics."

The study listed 15 social roles attributed to women. Women appear first as a "citizen" in the publications of the four countries. Creative women, activists, mothers and wives are also present. Articles showing women in a "modern role" represent 85% of the total space given to women, either as a citizen or as a leader, writer, creator or activist in community-based organizations or as a modern worker.

Newspapers of the four countries conveyed positive discourse, supportive of women's rights and valuing women's roles. Most articles are simple reports on declarations and activities of political decision-makers or activists in various organizations or associations, and the opinions expressed in them cannot therefore be attributed to media professionals.

What has been done in the face of a different and sometimes contradictory realities?

It is true that the different countries of the Arab world have traits in common: language, some legislation and lifestyle. This makes the standardization of some actions, notably media actions, possible. Such standardization is impossible in other regions such as Asia because of linguistic diversity. However, tremendous differences persist between Arab countries at all levels; political, economical, legislative, social and in the media.

MNCs were able to offer region-wide communication services due to their strong corporate identity. For a long time, the only regional media were newspapers. Technological development and a common language both favoured the creation of regional television channels, and regional satellite television, with decoders, and cable television is emerging. The Internet is growing, offering other spaces of expression, exchange, and "shared reality."

Women’s place in media

Women remain considerably underrepresented in management and decision-making positions in the media. In Tunisia 69% of students are women at the Institut de presse et des sciences de l'information, the only specialized university training institute. In 1997 and 1998 women made up 25% of the total number of accredited journalists, up from 16% in 1987. In radio and television, 50% of all workers are women, but only three hold decision-making positions.

This situation led CAWTAR to conduct a study in Tunisia, Yemen, the Emirates and Jordan in 1998. The focus of the study was on women as media professionals, and their vision of the relationship to work and women in the field of information.

Women covering politics and national issues made up 47.3% in Yemen, 36% in Jordan, 32% in Tunisia and only 2.1% in the United Arab Emirates. On their favourite subjects, 19% women placed social issues first, 13.1% women’s affairs, 12.1% international events, and 11.7% cultural themes. Women do feel that male colleagues in their work environment discriminate against them, but to a low extent – 14% to 16% in Jordan, Yemen and in the Emirates. In Tunisia, only 4.2% share this feeling. Ninety percent (90%) of women respondents said that their family and social circles accepted their choice of an information profession. Sixty-five point three percent (65.3%) consider that the portrayal of women in the media is positive, though the proportion varies. In Jordan, 82% consider the image to be positive, whereas in Tunisia only 53.5% share this opinion.

A majority of 63.2% of the women surveyed consider that the space granted to women in the media is insufficient, when it is not reduced to its absolute minimum. In Tunisia, 57.6% find that coverage of women is sufficient, even considerable.

Should there be special headings or permanent programmes in media for women? Sixty-eight point one percent (68.1%) of respondents approved of the idea, saying that it was important to raise awareness among women about the need to make the role women play visible and the importance of their contribution; social marginalization of women; and the specificity of women's issues.

But 54.9% of Tunisian women media professionals opposed women's information spaces as they felt it would consecrate discrimination between the sexes, believing that the concerns of women must not be separated from those of men and that the same discourse should be addressed to both sexes, without any preference or exclusion. These opinions are shared by a minority of media professionals in Jordan (26%) and in the United Arab Emirates (20.7%).

Women and ICTs

For the Internet to be more popular in the Arab world there needs to be more technological literacy. In a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Youth and Sport, 72.1% of young Tunisians (15-29) stated that they did not have exhaustive information on this medium. Only 9% of them use the Internet. Very few women use the Internet, due to the lack of telecommunications infrastructures and the high cost of computer equipment and connections. Four percent (4%) of Arab women access the Internet.  This rate is 50% in the United States and 35% in Brazil. One factor that explains the situation is the high rate of illiteracy among women in the region.

Yet, there are several Arab sites: Arabwomenconnect.org, ALARB, arabsgate, atyab, raddadi, and marweb, as well as e-zines (almarah.com, Femme du Liban, lamarocaine.com, Femme du Maroc, hiya, etc. focusing on the specific requirements of Arab women.

UNIFEM recently launched the first online discussion forum, in English, on "The Actual and Potential Role of the Media in Addressing Gender Disparity Issues". Language will be a handicap for many Arab journalists.

In its preliminary report, the action plan of Arab NGOs (2001-2005), there is no recommendation regarding new technologies. It does, however, insist on network training and the creation of networks.

Networking, a powerful tool

The need for networks in a period strongly marked by the regional integration process is becoming a fundamental and important issue. Different kinds of groupings and links come to the forefront and, through the development of information and communication technologies – telematics, the Internet, videotext, etc. – have the potential of multiplying into many permutations and combinations. This accomplishment allows regional activists to note the emergence of a new "way of thinking" based on an alternative communicational logic.

CAWTAR is hoping to encourage partnerships and experience sharing, using technological development to the best advantage. Its specialized networks – on globalization, the economic role of women, and on young Arab women – bring together different actors in the area of women's issues, NGOs, and media. As a regional NGO, CAWTAR has entered into an agreement with the Union of Arab Television Networks (l'Union des Télévisions Arabes) to present a prize for the best production on women during the Festival of Arab Television and Radio Networks. Next October, the two organizations will begin producing a series of documentaries on Arab women that will be broadcast on the Union's member stations.