Speak Your Mind: Mona Eltahawy’s Advice on Media

Last updated on: May 26, 2009 at 12:05 am by Krista

Speak Your Mind: Mona Eltahawy’s Advice on Media 2009-05-26T00:05:27-04:00 Krista

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I spent this past Sunday morning at a brunch hosted by the Canadian Council of Muslim Women to honor “Women Who Inspire.” Five Canadian Muslim women were presented with awards recognizing their contributions in the fields of politics, education, and community activism.

Also present was Mona Eltahawy, a U.S.-based journalist who gave a speech about media representations of Muslims. She had some interesting reflections that I thought I’d share here on MMW.

Eltahawy began her talk by suggesting that the CCMW awards should perhaps be re-named to “Women Who Confuse,” a reference to her argument that Muslims doing anything other than chanting angrily (men) or hiding passively under black fabric (women) cause serious confusion to people whose only encounters with Muslims may be through news media sources that rarely represent the kinds of activities that the award recipients have done. (See this video for an elaboration of her points on “The Happy Muslims Who Confuse You.”) She characterized representations of Muslim women in particular as dominated by the two “H”s, headscarves and hymens, defined by little more than our clothing and the sexual regulations imposed on us.

Eltahawy spoke about the frenzy among people in the West to “save” Afghan women, and gave a particular example of one organization selling swatches of a burqa, as a fundraiser that almost turned the burqa pieces into some kind of trendy consumer item (and reminded me of the burqa wine-bottle covers I wrote about a while ago.) She made a great point that “Afghan women are not our gimmicks, and not our dolls.” I love the way she calls people out on this objectification of Afghan women – the doll image is great, and so true.

One of the most interesting things that Eltahawy talked about was about how more people need to get their voices into the media, rather than just reading and talking about it. She spoke about her own experience sending an opinion piece to the Washington Post shortly after 9/11; she had no connections with the newspaper, but apparently the Post reads everything sent to them, and in her case they liked her article and got back in touch with her. They eventually printed some of her writing, and she came to be published in other newspapers. She encouraged those of us in the audience to try to do the same thing, and to sign off as activists in this field (along with whatever other qualifications we have), as a way of claiming credibility as people that the newspapers should listen to (and publish.) In a context where so many of us feel like our images are being torn “between people who want to save us and people who want to liberate us,” Eltahawy recommends that we respond to these saviors and liberators by adding our own voices to what’s being said.

I’m not sure it’s quite as easy as Eltahawy made it sound (though, to be fair, her talk was really short and didn’t have a lot of chance to go into detail.) After all, the newspapers aren’t going to print every thing that comes their way, and I’ve heard of some media declining to post quotes or interviews that add nuance or depth to a topic instead of confirming their sensationalist slant. But what I think was important was her encouragement to take an active role in producing media about Muslims, rather than just responding to what other people write (like, you know, on blogs that look at media representations.) So many of our writers and readers on MMW spend a lot of time writing and reading about these things, and Eltahawy’s encouragement to take this writing also into media sources (online and print) beyond our own blogs was actually pretty inspiring.

Of course, blogs like MMW continue to be important, not that I’m biased or anything. 😉 However, I also really liked Eltahawy’s suggestions, and wanted to pass on her encouragement to all of you as well – it would be great to see more of all of our work reaching out in new directions.

Previous Post

May 25, 2009

Radical Reform: Tariq Ramadan's Latest Book

Next Post

May 26, 2009 Bride Denied: Media Coverage of Mukhtar Mai's Wedding

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advertisements Art/Theater Books/Magazines Cinema Comics/Cartoons Culture/Society Events Fashion Film Friday Links Merchandise/Commodities MMW Announcements MMW Highlights Music/Radio News Photography Politics Profile Ramadan 2012 Ramadan 2013 Ramadan 2014 Ramadan 2015 Roundtable Satire Social Media Sports Technology/Science Television Uncategorized Video Web

Select a Month November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the father of John the Baptist?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Zechariah Joseph Nathan Simeon