Representation of Muslim Women in the Western Media

Nur Latifah Umi Satiti

doi:10.24002/jik.v14i2.789

Abstract

This essay attempts to argue about the representation of Muslim women in veil in Western media. This topic is chosen because of general discourse about Muslim women, who wear veil as a threat to secular tradition and value of freedom. Besides, media has power to create affirmation about the general discourse. This paper analyses some researches about Muslim women in media. Based on previous research, it can be assumed that media has power to create women representation as otherness and placed them as threat towards secular tradition and value of freedom.

Highlights

Abstrak: Tulisan ini mendeskripsikan representasi media barat atas perempuan Muslim berjilbab
Muslim women as a threat towards secular tradition and freedom value is showed from the ban for Muslim women wearing the veil in France (Scott, 2007, p. 90; Hamel, 2002, p. 297); and the feminists movement towards the veil (Nelson, 2013)
This paper tries to give some critiques toward the discourse about Muslim women in the media from post-colonial perspectives which focus on Edward Said’s idea about Orientalism, where he argues on how Islam is portrayed in a certain way

Summary

Introduction

Abstrak: Tulisan ini mendeskripsikan representasi media barat atas perempuan Muslim berjilbab. This paper discusses about how the Western media represent Muslim women in veil by using several researches on some Western texts. This topic is chosen mainly with two reasons: first, there is general discourse about Muslim women as a threat towards secular tradition and freedom value. This article will provide argumentation about discourse and power in media In this part, this paper will describe. This paper would like to explain how Islam is being portrayed in the Western’s media discourse. This part will provide the debate on media representation of Islam from Orientalism perspective. This essay assumes that the veil and freedom of Muslim women are always being questioned, after 9/11 catastrophe

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion