The white feminism of western media
This video is about the representation of arab/brown/muslim women in Western media. I very much welcome your feedback on this on, it's definitely a sensitive topic and the term islamophobia is only starting to gain recognition. This video basically looks at the special status arab/muslim/brown women receive in the media and how it's affecting their lives in the West and in the Middle East, especially in Palestine.
As a white woman, I’m not here to speak for Arab, Muslim or Brown women but to interrogate how the media I’ve grown up with portrays them, uses them, and the impact it has on their lives both in the West and in the Middle East. In this video, I use terms like ‘Arab,’ ‘Muslim,’ and ‘Brown’ to refer to women who are often subject to Western media narratives rooted in racism, orientalism, and selective feminism. I recognize that these labels are not interchangeable, and that ‘Arab’ in particular can be reductive, not all Muslims are Arab, not all Arabs are Muslim, not all Brown people are Arab or Muslim. My intention is not to collapse identities, but to highlight how the media tends to flatten these complex identities into simplistic, harmful stereotypes. I highly recommend you check the description as I've added references to activists, journalists, content creators, as well as some additional literature. I warmly welcome your feedback and criticism :)
Some relevant comments:
"The first woman, Maryam Mirzakhani, to win the fields mathematics prize (which is considered noble prize in mathematics) IS IRANIAN. she was born and educated in Iran."
"The same people saying “we need to liberate Arab women!” are the same ones who claimed “American aren’t ready for a woman as president.”
"It is particularly rich for Americans to cry about the barbarism of Muslim-majority countries when we have never, in any substantive way, paid for the decades of torture, rape, death, and destruction we visited (and continue to) on the Iraqi, Afghan, Somalian, Yemeni, and Syrian people. And, obviously, our material support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza and terror campaigns in the West Bank."
"I’m a muslim man from southeast asia. I’m so baffled by how uneducated people in the west are about the muslim world. I watched a clip of Asmongold watching that video of this same episode of “the view” in which he asked “well do iranian women even get to vote?” As a gacha question, when in fact, Iranian women got to vote 2 years before black women in America got to vote. I see women wearing that same dress the woman in black is wearing here on the streets all the time. These people don’t know the first university in the world was built by a muslim woman. They have no idea that a mother is respected three times over a father in Islam. These guys are so uneducated and I’m sad they aren’t face to face with someone who can educate them, because their narrative can be easily dismantled if they were."
"My husband complains sometimes that it’s unfair to men—how you have to obey your mother, respect your mother more in Islam. How women’s money is theirs while men’s money is family’s. How men never get breaks (like never missing 1 prayer or having to pray in a mosque). He complains so much that I just say “childbirth” and then he shrugs and says, “ok, fair.”
"not mentioning also islamic rights of a wife in islam. if her husband can afford it, he should get her a maid. she has a right to take her husband's money for necessities (for herself and the children) if he doesn't provide, she isn't obligated AT ALL to give him money and if she decides to do so it's literally considered charity"
"As an Arab, I hate it when they pretend to care about us even though they are the ones destroying our country."
"I had a housemate in college who asked for my help in editing an essay she was writing for a politics course, and she had this line claiming that women in Iran weren't allowed to drive or go to college. I pointed out that it's not true, and she said it was. I pulled up a stat showing that most Iranian college students were women, they have women race car drivers, and yes, literally from polling my own family there, I can confirm that they also drive on civilian roads. She kept averting this until I was like well since it's an essay you do have to cite a source, so, just see if you can do that. She said okay, let's move on from this for now. Like, it does get a bit absurd. That person's my friend still but it's crazy how imperialist narratives can mask such blatant racism."
"Funny enough, the reason I don't wear the hijab is because I'm scared of the western people. I live in germany in which Islam is pretty hated (the goverment is working on banning the hijab and my local library promotes mostly islamophobic books while it has high respect for other religions). I've never been opressed by any muslim. I've never had any wrong experience with the men in my family and community. I feel opressed by non muslims and that of course doesn't matter to them, cause then it's "Leave the country"- which is hypocritical considering these same people whine about how they wouldn't be able to express their beliefs in muslim countries. They why should you be allowed in my country but not me in yours? Especially when your country brags about having religious freedom and free speech and accuses mine of not having that. "I'd be killed in your country" I might be too in yours. Why are you acting like there hasn't been a rise of Islamophobic attacks or attempted attacks on muslims, which are barely reported or literally brushed off as nothing? Just recently a muslim woman was murdered for her hijab by her white neighboor, and her complaints were ignored by the police before her death, barely any german media outlet is talking about it. I'm scared too, but why should I have to suck it up and you're allowed to whine about it all the time? Why am I not allowed to wear what I want when it's not harming you at all???"
"As a queer Azerbaijani guy, I want to remind all Westerners: We are not asking for your help. The only thing we ask is that you do not kill us, do not colonize us, and do not support autocratic governments or radical groups, as you have always done. We can take care of ourselves. The only thing you need to do is stop harming us. Nobody is asking for your help anyway. If you would just stop causing harm, we can manage on our own; we are not mentally incapable beings, but people with a voice, visibility, and the will to revolt."
"As a Bahraini woman, thank you ! Hijab is a very empowering thing for many of us. Of course, the cultural issue of enforcing some traditional roles on women, especially forcing the hijab on girls, exists in countries riddled with war and colonialism, such as Afghanistan, and in some conservative families throughout our countries, but this is our fight to fight. Like someone else said in the comments, we are capable of fighting our own battles, we are capable of dealing with our own societies and men, leave us alone. We don't want your "liberation", your capitalism, your culture of objectification, your culture of racism and discrimination, or your culture of violence, genocide, and colonialism. We have our own voice, thank you."
"I loved your approach to this. It really is a huge problem. I am an Iranian woman. I see my people and I see my neighboring countries (which are birthplaces of many scholars I admire such as Laila Abulaghod and Nawal Alsa'dawi, If I spelled their names correctly in English) and I get baffled by the myth of us being uneducated and in need of being rescued. Yes. We have our problems, regardless of religioun or ethnicity, but are strong and smart. We definitly dont need anyone silencing us by speaking over us."
What a refreshing comment section, on YouTube no less. It keeps going.
