The media in Britain

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Naomi Sakr

"Are women benefiting from current changes in the Middle East media? With media all over the world still marginalizing women and trivializing gender inequalities, how does the situation in the Middle East compare? Proliferating satellite channels have increased women visibility in the region but visibility does not necessarily confer power. This book explores various ways in which media have been used to open up possibilities for women in the Middle East or, conversely, to restrict them. Having as their starting point the diverse experiences and multi-layered identities of women, the contributors treat media institutions and practices as part of wider power relations in society. By analyzing media production, consumption and texts, they reveal where and how gender boundaries have been erected or crossed. In eleven chapters, Women and Media in the Middle East spans both the region, from Iran to Morocco, and the media, from film and broadcasting to the press and internet. It looks back at women's journalism in pre-1952 Egypt and forward to future trends in women's internet use. One chapter shows how Maghrebi women filmmakers achieved a belated symbolic liberation for the 'colonized of the colonized'. Another reveals how Egyptian political films link the representation of women to nationalist ideals. A study of the women press in Iran shows how it forced gender to the forefront of government concerns, while an investigation of Kuwait's mainstream press uncovers duplicity in the struggle over female suffrage. A chapter on audience reception exposes clashing identity constructions and competing knowledge systems in a rural community. Further chapters explore an experiment in gender awareness programming on Palestinian TV and women's role on Hezbollah's television station, Al-Manar. The book begins by considering whether research on women and media in other contexts can be applied to the Middle East. It ends by discussing the careers of seven well-known Arab women journalists. Rich and illuminating, this highly original book will be useful to scholars, media professionals and general readers interested in women studies, media and shifting power structures in the Middle East"--Provided by publisher.

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Peter Eichstaedt

Providing a forum for the everyday people of Afghanistan to be heard, Eichstaedt reveals the truth behind the calculated rhetoric of war, politics, and diplomacy, and suggests a path forward toward a sustainable future for Afghanistan and southern Asia.

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Olivier Roy

In this book, Olivier Roy, Europe's leading scholar of political Islam, argues that the consequences of the "war on terror" have artificially conflated conflicts in the Middle East in such a way that they appear to be the expression of a widespread "Muslim anger" against the West. But in reality, there are no us and them. Instead, the West faces an array of "reverse alliances" that operate according to their own logic and dynamics. The West supports General Musharraf in Pakistan, yet his military intelligence services are in league with the Taliban; in Iraq, the United States shores up a government that is closely linked to its archenemy, Iran; Iraqi Kurds, allies of the Americans, give sanctuary to the PKK, an adversary of a fellow NATO member, Turkey; while the Saudis support the Iraqi Sunnis who are, in turn, fighting Coalition forces. As if these issues were not complicated enough, the ever-worsening Shia-Sunni divide now threatens to disrupt any future strategic planning the West might attempt in the Middle East. Roy unravels the complexity of these conflicts in order to better understand the political discontent that sustains them. He also emphasizes that the war on terror should not be regarded merely as a geopolitical blunder committed by a fringe group of neoconservatives. It is instead a problematic outgrowth of our deeply rooted Western perceptions of the Middle East, including the belief that Islam, rather than politics, is the overarching factor in these conflicts, thus explaining the West's support for either would-be secular democrats or (more or less) benign dictators. Roy's conclusion argues that the West has no alternative but to engage in a dialogue with the political forces that truly matter—namely the Islamo-nationalists of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Clarence B. Jones and Joel Engel

Clarence B. Jones, lawyer and adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects upon what King might have said about issues in twenty-first-century America such as Islamic terrorism, anti-Semitism, reparations for slavery, affirmative action, and illegal immigration.