Here we essentially address three points. The first is an analysis of the status of female journalists in the media, through an inventory of the number of women in decision-making positions.
The second consists of monitoring of the media carried out by CAWTAR’s media centre in 2012, addressing the manner in which women’s rights are treated by the Tunisian media. The third is monitoring based on the analysis of the image of women in the religious sphere as published by the Tunisian media, and carried out in 2013. One must bear in mind that since then the Tunisian media has become a true reflection of society without the equality, status and rights of women being at the heart of the public debate. Women are under-represented, in fact absent in the media as the main implementers of change achieved and to be achieved during the transition period. Women are also not represented in decision-making positions and in hosting this debate. On this subject, one should perhaps remember that almost all editorial boards for news and debates, on the radio and on television, were composed of women during the most critical period of power transition. They spontaneously found themselves providing a historical mission and accomplished it successfully and in a professional manner. This decision was not publicly paraded since the times had not allowed the real players in media production at the time to be revealed.
Just like the spontaneous aspect of equality that characterised protests held between December 2010 and January 2011, specific aspects characterised the media; women effectively held all decision-making positions in television and presided over editorial meetings. Would they also have preferred to be soldiers rather than take centre stage? That is a question requiring in-depth analysis.
As the media world “became organised” around the various sectors mentioned earlier and other elements, women journalists left the decision-making positions for a variety of reasons. One could say that the Tunisian “media system”[2] itself contains the mechanisms for the removal of women from the decision-making sphere. The only ones to remain visible were field reporters.
In order to preserve positions as field reporters, a job that for a very long time was, on one hand, reserved to men and, on the other, without real professional status,[3] female journalists, most of them young, had fought a real battle.
Of the many questions for which there are many possible aspects that can be attacked, only one will be privileged, because female journalists tenaciously work as field reporters, thereby rejecting easy options and preferring not only to cover events in “hot” spots, but also to report as real investigating journalists, confounding all media outlets.
In reality, the media tend on this issue to present a two-faced mirror, with, on the one hand female journalists do the most “dangerous” field reporting, and, on the other, a media sector predominately having men at the centre stage as the hosts of debates, experts, guests and sources of information.
Since the beginning of July 2011, five months after Tunisia’s January 14th revolution, we interviewed 16 producers and television debate hosts (11 men, who hosted debates, and five female editors-in-chief). These interviews with players working for three Tunisian state-owned and private television channels[4] addressed the issue of the absence of female personalities speaking at post-revolution televised debates.
An analysis of the contents of remarks made by those interviewed, revealed that they were all profoundly convinced that that male participants were more numerous, more willing and more motivated to discuss state affairs. On the other hand, those interviewed observed that when females personalities were invited to participate, the main reasons for not accepting were their unavailability (due to family commitments), the need to refer to a husband or other relatives in order to take part in these debates in addition to their fear of not being certain of providing an adequate contribution to the debate.
One must also observe that in addition to production requirements demanding instant answers to urgent questions, other reasons were provided by these women, among them concerns about being presentable, “looking good”, the fact that they are not sensitive to the role played by the media, that they are demanding and selective (compared to other participants) and that they lack self-confidence.
Paradoxically, this analysis also revealed that the producers and hosts of televised debates believed that women invited to media debates, although marginalised, went straight to the point, initiated constructive, pointed and rational discussions, prepared their contributions well, answered questions immediately and were outspoken. On the other hand, they also, most of the time, obliged others in the debate to respect certain rules (respect for one another, the amount of time allocated, not changing the subject on the agenda). According to those interviewed, their contributions stood out from those of male debaters for their rigorously and precise pragmatic arguments, avoiding all theoretical abstract extrapolations. They, more often and more than men, were inclined to introduce new themes and to set politics in the framework of a society-based project.
It was William Shakespeare who said “The world is a stage”. “On stage as in the theatre of life, there exists a game of roles in which social players linked by complex relationships of alliances, conflict, negotiations and competition are involved.”[5] The media sector plays by the same rules, hence the introduction in journalistic productions of the “stars” of the theatre of life. Nowadays, one sees, for example, televised debates addressing political, financial and even security issues, animated by participants from other walks of life, such as a female participant from a game show or even universities “making names for themselves” in the total absence of any direction. This, once again, returns us to a sector experiencing “anarchic” change, in which economic factors dominate and in which journalists of both genders, and especially women, are increasingly alienated.
This post-revolutionary setting has merged everything. One now sees television hosts wearing the veil, a situation inconceivable before January 14th even in background of an interview on the streets of Tunis. Leaving aside a human rights approach, in the aforementioned media system, these veiled women are supposed to represent a certain category, bearing in mind the recrudescence of religiosity.
How the media treat women’s rights
During the crucial period of the transformation of the political and media landscape, expectations of the media were very high, also as far as professionalism, objectivity and impartiality were concerned. There were also expectations regarding the manner in which the new political situation would be addressed and the role played in applying equality laws[6] contributing to the spreading and consolidation of a balanced image of women, reflecting their role and capabilities. It was necessary to avoid denigration campaigns and abuse aimed at managers active in civil society, while denouncing all practices degrading for women that affected their image. While this period was characterised by women accessing decision-making positions, especially in television, this increase in numbers was not accompanied by a change of quality as far as media contents were concerned, as emerged in a report monitoring the written press, radio and television published in 2012 within the framework of the project entitled “The rights of Arab women and the press.” The process included the monitoring of private media outlets Hannibal tv and Nessma tv, and one state-owned channel, the Chaîne Nationale 1, which has the highest audience ratings.
The sample monitored also included three daily newspapers (Essabah, the Maghreb, al-Fajr) and a weekly (Réalités) as well as two radio stations, Mosaïque FM and Chems FM. The monitoring lasted ten months, for five days a month, for a total observation period of 50 days.
The analysis of the manner in which women are portray was qualitative and based on a format developed by the CAWTAR media centre, addressed at analysing the place held by women in the media both as the subjects of news and the producers of news. This format allowed us to address four main issues: 1. Who provides the news? 2. Who does the news report on? 3. Which women are the subjects of news? 4. In what manner are women referred to?
The main elements observed in this analysis indicate the persistence of the marginal and minor role played by women in the Tunisian media within the context of the transition, while this same context would instead have been favourable to the inclusion of a gender approach as far as the media’s treatment of issues linked to this subject were concerned. The transition phase effectively led the media to focus attention on issues judged to be priorities and from which women were almost systematically excluded, thereby contributing to strengthening women’s invisibility and continuing inequality between men and women in media productions.
Initially, freedom of expression and the independence of the press emerged as a crucial issue, considering the repeated attacks on media institutions and professionals. The channels Nationale 1 and Nessma tv and the newspaper Le Maghreb, the object of our monitoring, were directly targeted by denigration campaigns organised by mainly Islamist political forces. Lotfi Zitoun, a member of the political party Ennahda and a political advisor to the head of the Hamadi Jebali government, did not stop threatening to place the names of journalists who collaborated with the old regime on a black list, or to embark on crusades against the “mauve” press.
The sit-in that lasted 50 days, outside the entrance to the television station, aimed at a clean-up operation of state-owned “iilam al ar” (The media of shame), led by the Islamist fringe, is another example of pressure exercised by the political sector on the media, to the extent to which it imposed a struggle to achieve autonomy as being the number-one priority in the field of journalism.
On the other hand, the media outlets analysed focused on political and economic issues, giving priority to events linked to current affairs when reporting, without attempting to address issues linked to human rights. As far as the phase during which the drafting of the new constitution took place, it was not exploited to pose as the subject of debates, the juridical and legislative rights of citizens in general or more specifically those of women.
As far as the manner in which news was reported, the media outlets monitored were characterised by a lack of gender approach in analysing information, and by weakness in their basic addressing of human rights within the context of events linked to public life. The wave of protests concerning social and economic issues, the niqab affair (the full veil) at Manouba University, the work done by the committee drafting the National Constituent Assembly’s new constitution, were also events that took place during 2012 and could have provided fertile material for raising the question of women’s rights, had those responsible for the media and had journalists themselves had media competence based on such rights.
Thus the position allocated to women as the subject and source of news remained a very marginal one. Effectively, the issue of women’s rights did not emerge as a priority subject during the period studied (2012). This became clear in the media observed, which, furthermore, did not invite women to debate these issues, and more specifically the inclusion of women’s rights in the constitution that was being drafted. In truth, the absence of women as interlocutors or experts prepared to discuss issues concerning public life is flagrant, and reflects the ongoing idea that the public sphere is exclusively reserved to men. Moreover, one could also observe the weakness of databases for women, avoidance of contentious issues raised by society, in particular those linked to women’s rights, as well as the absence of editorial guidelines for addressing women’s issues.
The only positive element was the absence of stereotype questions asked of women, which were, however, dominant in interviews with female personalities.
Women and the religious issue
A number of studies have emphasised the increasingly large space occupied by religious channels in the Arab media. Their number effectively doubled between 2010 and 2011, which raises a number of questions concerning their links with realities in Arab societies and their concerns, and whether they have been capable of contributing to opposing the extremist schools of thought speaking in the name of religion. None equally questioned the presence of women and their image as portrayed by these media outlets. In what manner does the religious media present the religious issue? What are the effects used to disseminate such visions and representations, especially those concerning women?
In Tunisia, no one doubts that the Islamist movement Ennahda’s rise to power has had a significant impact on the media, characterised by the emergence of a number of newspapers and audio-visual outlets with religious orientations, attempting to provide different and varied visions and perceptions of questions concerning religion and social life. Furthermore, in 2012, the Ministry for Religious Affairs in Tunisia organised a round table entitled “Towards a vision of reforming the religious media in Tunisia”, during which three main subjects were debated: “A critical approach of the religious media under the old regime,” “The reality of religious programmes in the audio-visual sector,” and, “Religious pages in Tunisian newspapers after the revolution.”
In what way do religious programmes and publications portray women and define their role in society? Are there significant differences between religious media affiliated to Islamist movements and private independent media? To answer these questions we rely on the outcome of media monitoring undertaken by the CAWTAR media centre throughout 2013 (January – May/September –November 2013), specifically concerning an analysis of the religious issue. This monitoring involved the following media:
1.Three Islamist newspapers (Al-Fajr, Edhamir, Essahwa)
2.The programme entitled Ezzawaj Mawadda broadcast by the Islamist radio station Ezzitouna.
3.The programme entitled Tawassol al Qoulub broadcast by the privately-owned television channel Hannibal tv. You can watch a short episode of here (with Italian subtitles)
Generally speaking, the outcome of this observation of the media study reveals the absence in religious columns of subjects concerning women, reflecting the lack of a clear and rational religious debate on women. This leads to an exaggeration in addressing issues concerning women as well as a stereotyped image of women, their role and their position in society. In truth, women were not present at all in the media studied, except for subjects portraying a stereotyped woman and the traditional outlook, relegating all women to the private sphere. Women were absent in other subjects addressed as if they were not concerned with anything linked to public life.
What attracts attention is the absence of significant differences between religious or political-religious media and the independent and privately-owned media. For example, the programme Ezzawaj Mawadda broadcast by the radio station Ezzitouna affiliated with the Islamist party Ennahda and the weekly show Tawassol al Qouloub broadcast by the privately-owned television channel Hannibal, had the same attitude in the manner in which they addressed matters concerning women. Women were considered here as incapable of reflecting on themselves, relegated to the traditional role of bearing children without going beyond the borders of the private sphere. These programmes also emphasised women’s duty to obey their husbands, the head of the family, and their inability to participate in making decisions and to demand equal status with men.
The question that arises is to understand whether these similarities concerning the image of women in the religious outlook presented by these two aforementioned media, are the result of stereotypes deeply rooted in the Tunisian mentality, or whether they were to be blamed on the rapprochement between Larbi Nassra, the owner of Hannibal television, and the party in power, Ennahda.
The only detectable difference concerns the written Islamist press, and more specifically the newspaper Al-Fajr, affiliated to the Islamist party Ennahda. The manner in which matters concerning women are addressed in the daily newspaper’s religious columns, mainly concern the use of the veil and the full veil, as well as the law forbidding the veil in the army and the right of women wearing the niqab to attend schools. The choice of subjects addressed by this newspaper depend greatly on the country’s political and economic situation and the priorities outlined by political and ideological competition, setting Ennahda in opposition to secular political movements.
One also sees that religion is no longer the only reference mobilised to address questions linked to the garments worn by Muslim women, since post-revolution political change has imposed the inclusion of a “human rights” approach in debating the subject. This corresponds more to the logic of partisan and ideological struggles than to purely religious and spiritual considerations, thereby reflecting the awareness of those responsible for this newspaper of the need to confront their opponents, mainly political ones, on the basis of the same “universalist” reference points.
Conclusions
The media are a battlefield and Tunisian women, and the manner in which their image is portrayed, are the gateway to all change, whether within the Islamist versus secular or the political versus economic dichotomy.
Women are at times concealed by the media, depending on priorities outlined on the basis of the evolution of the country’s political, economic or security situation, or exploited by the religious-political media for propaganda purposes. The only thing that seems to have not changed, compared to the pre-revolution period, is that the public sphere remains a domain from which women are definitely excluded.
This invisibility/exploitation is not only the result of a currently hypothetical and fluidly outlined polarisation. The lack of competence among journalists as far as gender equality in the media is concerned and a clear desire to rectify matters, are the elements that one should take into account when rethinking the way in which media professionals should treat all issues concerning women.
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Maryam Ben Salem holds a doctorate in Political Science. She works as a researcher on female political participation at the Center of Arab Woman for Training and Research (CAWTAR) in Tunis. Her research revolves around political activism, religious effort, cyber-activism and media visibility of female politicians. She is also a member of various scientific associations: the Observatoire de la transition démocratique, the Mediterranean College for Scientific Research and the Tunisian association for political studies.
Atidel Mejbri is a Ph.D. student and university lecturer. From 1999, she has been responsible for the Department of Information and Communication at the Center of Arab Woman for Training and Research (CAWTAR) in Tunis and chief editor of its periodical. She has produced online debates on social issues for the Tunisian Satellite Channel. She won the creative prize for the best conference moderator at the Cairo Radio and Television Festival (2002), and the Tunisian Journalist Association award for the best female production (on gender violence). In addition, she coordinated the three year programme on “Sex and Arab media” for CAWTAR and UNIFEM.
Notes
[1]This paper is an extract of a longer essay written for Pietro Longo, Azzurra Meringolo ( edited by) “Tunisian Media, between polarization and compromise.”
[2]The media system is an analysis of different aspects of the media sector while also analysing its impact on these viewers, as well as the reasons behind the production of all media.
[3]Most of the time field reporting was associated to covering events.
[4]The only ones that existed during this period.
[5]Sihem Najar and Mohamed Kerrou, La décision sur scène, Tunis, CAWTAR, majd, 1st edition 2007.
[6]Equality in electoral lists was promulgated by the Haute Instance pour la Réalisation des Objectifs de la Révolution. This law regulating the electoral process makes equality and the alternation of men and women compulsory in all electoral lists. It stipulates that lists not respecting these principles will be annulled.
References
BOURDIEU, P., “L’emprise du journalisme”, Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, Vol. 101-102, March 1994.
Champagne, P., “La double dépendance. Quelques remarques sur les rapports entre les champs politique, économique et journalistique”, Hermès 17-18, 1995.
Damian-Gaillard, B., FRISQUE, C. e SAITTA, E., “Le journalisme au prisme du genre: une problématique féconde”, Questions de communication, 2009. http://questionsdecommunication.revues.org/544
Hizaoui, A., “Insertion des TIC dans le monde Arabe, adaptation et résistances”, Technologies de l’information et de la communication, discours, représentations et pratiques, opera collettiva, IPSI (Tunisi) – COMU (Univ. catholique de Louvain), Tunis, 2006.
NAJAR, S. e KERROU, M., La décision sur scène, Tunis, Cawtar, majd, first edition 2007.
TOUATI, Z., “La révolution tunisienne: interactions entre militantisme de terrain et mobilisation des réseaux sociaux”, L’Année du Maghreb, VIII, 2012. http://anneemaghreb.revues.org/1426; DOI: 10.4000/anneemaghreb.1426
Reports
CAWTAR, Analyse de l’image de la femme dans le discours religieux des médias tunisiens à orientation religieuse, 1er Rapport, Cawtar e Acte, January-May 2013.
CAWTAR, Analyse de l’image de la femme dans le discours religieux des médias tunisiens à orientation religieuse, 2ème Rapport, Cawtar e Acte, September-November 2013.
CAWTAR, Monitoring du traitement des droits des femmes par les médias tunisiens. Rapport de synthèse, January-October 2012.
Instance Supérieure Indépendante Pour Les Elections, Rapport relatif au déroulement des élections de L’Assemblée nationale constituante, Tunis, February 2012. http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/africa/TN/tunisie-rapport-relatif-au-deroulement-des
Instance Nationale pour la Réforme de l’Information & de la Communication (INRIC), Rapport Général. Résumé, April 2012.
Translation Francesca Simmons Pomeroy