Citation

Halim S, Meyers M. Commun. Cult. Crit. 2010; 3(1): 85-104.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, International Communication Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1753-9137.2009.01059.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examines news coverage of violence against Muslim women in English-language newspapers in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. Using discourse analysis, it asks whether coverage reflects traditional Islamic or Islamic feminist perspectives. The findings indicate the news overwhelmingly reflected traditional Islamic beliefs concerning the secondary status of Muslim women. Coverage minimized the violence, blamed victims, omitted women's voices, and treated sympathetically men who committed honor crimes. However, an Islamic feminist perspective was evident in some content that challenged women's segregation in Saudi Arabia. This study concludes that this news coverage shares many of the same characteristics of news reporting of violence against women in the West by ignoring its systemic nature and relation to male supremacy and patriarchal ideology.