Muslim Women in the Media

Many of us will think that more and more women are involved in the media nowadays. One might argue that gender roles have been forgotten in the 21-st century, that we do not care whether we see male or female anchor on TV. Unfortunately, it seems that this is not the case. The Women and Media Fact Sheet proves that women continue to be a minority in the mass media and men dominate in that industry.
However, I want to take a closer look at one particular group of women and examine their place in the media and the way that they are portrayed. If it is hard for the white American woman to express her voice, imagine how much harder it is for women of color or for those who belong to different religious group.
Muslimah Media Watch is a forum where Muslim women critique how their images appear in the media and popular culture. This online forum is created from Muslim women and is devoted to Muslim women in particular. However, I believe that most women despite of their color or religion will find the forum interesting and informative at the same time.
Despite the fact that the women who created the forum are of different nationalities, they all share something in common-their religion. Therefore, they are all portrayed in one-dimensional way in the media. These women claim that the way they are presented in the media is misleading. They created the forum so this way they can speak for themselves from a Muslim feminist perspective.
“As Muslim feminists we aim to locate and critique misogyny, sexism, patriarchy, Islamophobia, racism, and xenophobia as they affect Muslim women. Furthermore, we believe in equal opportunities, equal respect, equal freedom, and equal value — regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, and ability.” -That’s the way the authors explain their goal on the website.
I found it very interesting that some of the authors who write for the forum were born and raised in the United States. However, they remained faithful to their identity and culture, by contributing for that unique forum. All the authors are females of course and you can choose an article from different author or from the list of different categories. The list of categories is very diverse and includes topics like advertisement, cinema, culture, politics, and magazines and so on.