Latest news: UEA launches women, Islam and media course

The University of East Anglia has launched the UK’s first course covering the relationship between women, Islam and the media. 19/01/2012

The course will look at the often fraught relationship between the three, with a particular focus on how Muslim women are portrayed in advertising, TV and other media.

Topics covered in the 12-week module will include veil wearing, arranged marriages and honour crimes, and the different ways in which media in the east and west examine them.

The course is led by Dr Eylem Atakav, a lecturer in the university’s School of Film and Television Studies and a graduate of Ankara University in Turkey.

‘Women’s place in Islam has been widely discussed, but the relationship between women, Islam and the media has only recently been picked up – particularly in relation to the Arab Spring and new forms of political activism by women,’ says Dr Atakav.

‘The programme will cover different aspects of the relationship between women and Islam – for example, the political and religious resonance of the veil, representations of women as terrorists in films, and the consequences of arranged marriage in television programmes,’ she added.

Another theme running through the module will be the work of female film-makers in countries where Islam is the dominant religion, such as Iran and Turkey.