Representation of "Nudity" of women activists in Arab print media: A critical discourse analysis

ABSTRACT: When the uprising movements erupted against the oppressive regimes, distribution of wealth, valuable sources and against the abuse of human rights in the Arab region, the world was watched and wondered if the Orient could succeed. The East was confronting their history and writing a new destiny. Since everything we see around us is gendered, the Arab Spring is also gendered. The mainstream media tend to create stereotypical perceptions about women and femininity. This is a qualitative research to find out the visible and hidden discourses that used in Arab news about activist women who took an active role in Arab Spring uprising and revolutions regarding women, womanhood, motherhood, body. Critical discourse analysis essentially considers the ways in which power is embedded and circulated in discourse, rhetoric and composition too is compelled by the interplay between power and language (Huckin & Clary-Lemon, 2012, p. 112). I also discuss that, the production of meaning about women is involved in Arab news and I argue that the meaning is produced by men‘s authority. In this sense meaning is fixed and embedded into particular connotations which organized consciously to attempt the consequences of discourses. This study analyses how Arab women are represented in general and how Arab woman activist in particular in the Arab news media for twenty four months between January 1st 2011 and December 31st 2013 in Al-Hayat (Saudi Arabia), Al-Chorouk (Tunisia) and Al-Ahram (Egypt) newspapers from critical discourse analysis (CDA) perspective. The results indicate that; the Arab news media uses religion, patriarchal hegemonic discourses on women. If the women nudity is the subject, the Middle East authors tend to discriminate women activists and represent them as alienated ones. Also, the Arab media is blaming women activists by coping western corruptions and looking for a deviant source coming from outside. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………