Break the Silence!

The CSW parallel event- Break the Silence! MENA Media Platforms Negate Women’s Narratives was sponsored by Nazra for Feminist Studies and co-sponsored by The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in the Middle East and North Africa. This session focused on the violence and stereotypes perpetrated about women in the media in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with a focus on North Africa. The panel consisted of three women who are involved in the media in North Africa- one from Morocco and two from Egypt. One consensus among all panelists was that to properly address the issue of gender-based violence in media, the most important question to answer is: “Are there female leaders in media?” To this question, all panelists answered NO. The panel members stated that it is difficult to get real issues concerning women into the media outlets because of a lack of female representation in leadership positions.

In Egypt, the only sections of the newspapers that are dedicated for women are for fashion, beauty, motherhood and cooking which often perpetuates untrue stereotypes and when real issues are addressed, it is called a corruption of the women’s section of the newspaper. This serves as a battle for the Women Human Rights defenders as they are not only up against the media and a patriarchal society but also against private companies who have a vested interest in continually perpetuating these demeaning stereotypes of women in order to keep up their sales of cosmetic, fashion and beauty products. In Morocco, women are championed as being equal and included but are portrayed in the media as commodity which is a paradoxical situation that reinforced patriarchy among the younger generation and shifts the focus away from gender based violence.

However a battle has been won with the aid of local, regional and international feminist activists who provide journalists with the data needed to compel editors-in-chief to publish these important issues as there are facts and figures to back up the need for this information. In Egypt, Ms. Raneem has taken it upon herself to create a safe space for Egyptian women, especially rural women who experience worse forms of violence to tell their stories from a different perspective than that of the traditional media outlets who blame the victims of sexual terrorism. She created this space because as a professional in the media, she had experienced firsthand how women were portrayed as commodity, the lack of female leadership in media and the portrayal of sexual violence in the media. She uses alternative media outlets to ensure that the voices of women are heard with the hope that these efforts in the media will serve as a tool to change the culture.