“Liberation” vs. “Purity”: Representations of Saudi Women in the American Press and American Women in the Saudi Press

Abstract

This article analyzed representations of Saudi women in the American press after September 11, 2001. Using feminist criticism, the critique of Orientalism, and postcolonial discourses as theoretical frameworks, it also compared the representations of Saudi women in The Washington Post with those of American women in the Arab News. While The Washington Post overwhelmingly portrayed Saudi women as oppressed victims in need of Western liberation, the Arab News represented most freedoms enjoyed by American women as shallow. Even as the Arab News primarily constructed American women as ethnocentric, superficial, individualistic and immoral, it simultaneously bestowed Saudi women with the responsibility of resisting Westernization and preserving Islamic purity, national dignity and culture. While dominant representations of American women in the Arab News were pejorative in nature, those American women who were perceived as attempting to understand Saudi culture and praised Saudi customs, traditions and lifestyles were positively portrayed. Finally, the rescue discourses in the American press and the nationalist agenda in the Saudi press shared a defining characteristic: both had the same goal of disciplining the female body.

KEYTERMS:

• gender
• imperialism
• liberation
• nationalism
• purity
• representations

Notes

The researcher lived in Saudi Arabia during her teenage years. As a 13-year-old, she faced the wrath of the muttawa or the Saudi religious police during a visit to the marketplace in the Saudi town where she lived when her veil had slipped exposing her ankle and a few centimeters above it. The commotion and embarrassment caused by the incident remained a difficult memory.

The researcher does not aim at protecting oppressive practices against women under the label of cultural relativism. Instead, she seeks to analyze the role played by media representations of women in justifying imperialistic expansion or trapping women as protectors of civilizational and individual honor.