Arab TV Dramas May Reinforce Gender Bias

This document from the Inter Press Service (IPS) claims that Arabic TV channels wait for Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, to launch new soaps that generally portray women negatively. It indicates that there is a larger television audience during this period who will be seeing portrayals "of abused women who cannot fight or evil females who cannot live without destroying others," according to Bahraini activist and writer, Karim Radhi.

Radhi explains that the problem with gender stereotyping of women in the popular TV dramas is that it has a regressive impact on the growing efforts everywhere in the region to fight for gender equality in politics and in the home. A study conducted between 2006 and 2007 by the University of Bahrain, commissioned by the national Supreme Council for Women (SCW), analysed the portrayal of violence against women in TV dramas. The findings "stress the importance of ensuring that TV dramas are not disassociated from real life. It advises production companies to introduce strong women characters who can inspire social change and help women achieve the goals of empowerment." The general secretary of the SCW, Lulwa Al Awadh, stated that "[r]eformation of the Arab drama could help us, activists, reach our goals faster... We don’t want to control drama. Productions must create better images of women so ordinary people can through them understand the real strength and capabilities of Arab women." The SCW, as stated here, supports the recommendations of the study, including the recommendation that calls for a code of honour for gender discrimination-free TV dramas.

While some of Bahrain's women activists feel that TV drama reveals women's suffering to the public, Mona Al Sawaf, psychological consultant at King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in an interview published in the United Kingdom-based Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper, said that entertainment companies focus on physical and psychological abuse of women in order to attract a larger viewership. She warned that young viewers could grow up believing that abuse and gender discrimination are normal and acceptable, and this could make young males more violent towards women and young females more submissive to violence. She suggested that the portrayals promote an unhealthy relationship between couples and serve to justify the dominant power of men over women.