The representation of women in Egyptian newspapers during the 2011 – 2014 uprisings in Egypt

Abstract

The Arab Spring, which swept across North Africa and parts of the Middle East in 2011 was viewed bymany observers, commentators and activists in the West and throughout the region as a beacon of hope.The world rejoiced that the autocratic regimes of leaders such as Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, HosniMubarak in Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia were toppled, and it was hoped that theseregimes would be replaced by fair and democratic governments. Unfortunately, the post-revolutionaryreality has not met the expectations of many ordinary people. Instead, Libya and Syria have descendedinto factional clashes between local militias and civil war respectively. In Egypt, the progress thatwomen activists and campaigners were achieving with respect to improving the rights andrepresentation of women across society has regressed. Consequently, the social position of women hasbecome marginalised in the face of masculine institutions such as the Egyptian military. In order toassess the impact that gender discourses held within Egyptian society, this research project has analysedarticles from two of the most popular newspapers in the country – Al Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm.Specifically, the study assesses how both these papers have reported incidents featuring prominentprotests and campaigns by women in the aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution and within the contextof dominant patriarchal discourses and discursive practices. I argue that these discourses served tonormalise an inferior position for women in society. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) andqualitative interviews involving women who have first-hand experiences of the workings of newspapersin Egypt, this study discovers that there are similarities and deviations in the way that language is usedin articles that feature campaigns and protests by women: in particular, the court case pertaining toSamira Ibrahim and the virginity test case; the presidential bid by Bothaina Kamel; and the campaignby women's groups to allow female recruitment by the Egyptian military. This study finds that somelanguage in the newspapers does counter hegemonic masculinity. I argue in this study that Egyptiannewspapers are responsible for disseminating an ideological discourse that serves to support thepatriarchal institutions of the State. Through the lens of hegemonic masculinity, it finds that thedominance and normalising of the male voice within the selected Egyptian newspapers, serves toreinforce certain preferences within social opinion through discursive practices. The study ascertainsthat Egyptian newspapers offer an example of institutionalised hegemonic masculinity which strives systematically to silence women despite valiant attempts by certain women activists to interrogate boththe workings and institutions of hegemonic masculinity by way of their voice. By analysing the voicesof Egyptian women as captured in Western sources and through the lens of Islamic Feminism, this studyalso demonstrates how women contest dominant discourses in mainstream Egyptian newspapers.

Date of Award	Sept 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bedfordshire
Supervisor	Noha Mellor (Supervisor) & Agnieszka Piotrowska (Second supervisor)