Stereotypes Of Muslim Women Essay

How the media misrepresents Muslim women and the effects of that.

The portrayal of Muslim women in the media has been a continuous issue for many years because of its misleading and inaccurate stereotypes. This distorted image portrays stereotypes and contributes to making a wrong public image of Muslim women, leading to misconceptions, which lead to discrimination against Muslim women in society. Hijab is an important part of many Muslim women's lives and one of the main issues is the media's stereotypical idea of the hijab and its creation of certain stereotypes. In addition, the lack of representation, which is another problematic matter, leads to those twisted views of oppression. This received idea and misrepresentations not only creates

Media like TV shows and movies often portray their characters as being forced to and oppressed to wear the hijab and wanting to take it off. They portray the character through her “freedom” after removing it just because it doesn't align with the Western values. For example, one of the most famous streaming services, who is also known for wildly misrepresenting Muslim women, is Netflix. A recent movie called “Elite” features Nadia, a Muslim woman who fits into these stereotypes perfectly. She is shown as oppressed by her conservative family, a victim of domestic abuse, regularly drinking and engaging in things against her religion, and to top it off, they show a white man from the opposite religion “saving” her and bringing her to freedom. In the beginning of the show, Nadia is shown as the quiet girl who never speaks up for herself and the problem is that none of the writers were Muslim. They don't have experience or knowledge about the true lives of Muslim women, so they use previously made stereotypes that they either have heard or watched and shaped these characters without knowing whats right or wrong. As these stories might actually happen in real life, portraying these characters over and

By displaying a hijabi character like Rayyan, a hijabi but a very boring person with no interests, the media reinforces the image of Muslim women being oppressed by their religion. These inaccurate representations in the media contribute to supporting these stereotypes, creating a biased and misleading view of Muslim women wearing the hijab. Secondly, the lack of representation and diversity in the media contributes and leads to the twisted view of Muslim women. The lack of representation of Muslim women in the media, let alone accurate and non-stereotypical representations, has been an ongoing problem in the media for a long time. These very few representations fail to differ between their culture and religion and tend to mix these up, resulting in confusion and misinformation to the audience. A study that was done in 2020, shows us that out of 200 popular films from 2018-2019, less than 26% were female Muslim characters, and less than 5% were the protagonists in these films. (Khan & Pieper, 2022). Even when they portray female and Muslim characters, they don't take into account the difference between culture and religion and tend to portray certain behaviors that