The Arab world needs more female leaders in the media to change cultural attitudes, says an activist.<\/p>\n
Soap operas in particular have the power to address challenges facing Arab women and families and aid their development, according to Zainab Salbi, the founder of Nida\u2019a Network, a multimedia platform for Arab women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point when I decided to work in the media was after the story of one Iraqi woman in a very poor province of Iraq,\u201d said Ms Salbi.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was abused by her husband for 20 years and decided to have a divorce. When the lawyer asked her why now, she quoted the Turkish soap operas and said she realised that she did not deserve to be treated this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Salbi believes that acknowledging the role of Arab women in the television and technology sectors can spur economic development.<\/p>\n
But the media industry remains largely dominated by men, and the media still defines women\u2019s roles as being a mother, wife or daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cArab economies cannot develop without the inclusion of women. One way to do this is through the media to spread the message,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The proliferation of foreign soap operas, particularly Turkish ones, has, however, had a big impact in changing attitudes across the region. For instance, they are inspiring men to take better care of their appearance to look more like the silver-screen heroes, as well as encouraging women to demand more respect in their relationships.<\/p>\n
In terms of online social media, women comprise about 50 per cent of users on Facebook<\/a>. But in the Middle East, they make up just 30 per cent, as many fear the harsh judgement of society and their families if they express their opinions online<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting the remaining 70 per cent online means education, access to technology and a cultural shift that it is OK to express your voice, even if it is controversial,\u201d said Ms Salbi.<\/p>\n A study by the business consultancy Booz & Company reveals that survey respondents aged 15 to 35, labelled as the Arab digital generation, are more likely to feel that there is gender inequality in the workforce.<\/p>\n Ramez Shehadi, a partner at Booz said: \u201cOnly 45 per cent of that group believe that women have the same opportunities to work as men.<\/p>\n \u201cOne potential explanation for these findings is that younger people in the Mena region have higher expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a potential opportunity to educate citizens, as there is convincing evidence that adding women to the workforce can spur economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Arab world needs more female leaders in the media to change cultural attitudes, says an activist. Soap operas in particular have the power to address [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[627],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10653,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10651\/revisions\/10653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}