Abuse of women in Egyptian Cinema

The Abuse of Women and Gender perception in Egyptian Films.

Problem statement ď Ž

This research is conducted to examine the image of women in Egyptian films and the relation between film as a medium and gender perception in society.

Thesis statement ď Ž

There is a symbiotic relationship between film and society in the sense that film as a medium mirrors and addresses society and at the same time people’s perception of society are shaped by films. Therefore the image making and perception of women should change in hope to bring gender equality.

Introduction 

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Movies are a form of mass communications and like other forms of mass com, movies are able to by pass the traditional socialising agents.

Movies are shapers and reflectors of society Movies play a role in how we perceive the world around us. Besides entertaining, they shape public consciousness and provide us with ideas.

Direct influence theory.

Psychoanalysis psychology and feminist cinema.

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Theoretical Framework: Our research is conducted in the light of a very famous ethical theory in media which is the veil of ignorance developed by John Rawl .

Rawls’s veil of ignorance :Justice emerges when negotiating without Social differentiations .

It suggests that Justice emerges when negotiating without social differences such as sex differences and to do this one must go behind a veil of ignorance to ensure equality between all parties.

It seems that this theory is not followed by Egyptian cinema which discriminates women.

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Another theory which is relevant to our topic is the psychoanalysis theory which states that everything in society is developed from a male perspective. This is used by feminist cinema to analyze the dominance of males in films.

Hypotheses dependent variables in red and independent variables in yellow       

Movies negatively effect the Egyptian woman in her Career world.

Movies negatively effect the Egyptian woman in her Family , Movies negatively effect the Egyptian woman in her self image.

Movies negatively effect the Egyptian woman in her relationship with male figures. women are unable to breakthrough in their career , because of the distorted image of them in the cinema.

Males’ opinion of women is effected by the image portrayed in the cinema.

Men’s behaviour may be effected by the violent scenes they see towards women in films.

Research Questions : 

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In our research we will examine How the media had effected the Egyptian woman in her Career world , marriage, Family , her self image and her relationship with male figures in general .

Are women unable to breakthrough in their career , because of this distorted image of them in the cinema ?

Has this way of framing woman affected wives in their marriages ?

Do Violent Scenes provokes men and drives them to behave aggressively ?

Methodology ď Ž ď Ž

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As part of the methodology we are going to use both content analysis and surveys.

The content analysis will be used to analyze the content of our sample films .

Characters etc The surveys will be used to explore gender perception.

Content Analysis   

Our population is films.

The sample we’re selecting are Egyptian films from the 1990’s until the present.

The films we are conducting our research on are the following:

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Bahethat an al huriya (seekers of freedom) Mowaten w mukhber w haramy El naama wel tawoos El saher Sahar el laialy El eshk wal dam Arak balah Asrar el banat Muzakerat Murahka Emraa waheda la takfy Al akhar Rendezvous El selim wel teban Al raghba El Marah W Al Satoor

Coding Sheet           

Name of the movie : Name of the director : The genre of the film: 1) drama 2)comedy 3)thriller 4)romance 5)action 6)other Main Characters : (1) Role: 1)major 2) minor 3)individual 4)group Age: 1)child 2)teenager 3)adult 4)elderly Marital status: 1) single 2)married 3) divorced Employment: 1)housewife 2)low salary worker 3)high position 4) unemployed 5)other Character relation to others: 1) wife 2) daughter 3)stranger 4)friend 5)mother 6) lover 7) other The character’s actions in the story: 1)Submissive 2)abusive 3) helpless 4)other Further Description of the character :

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Type of VIOLATION to women : verbally Physically by VIOLENCE Rape Distorted and weak image All the above Other (Specify ) 

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No of scenes where there is abuse for woman :

Verbal abuse : Physically abuse : Rape : Distorted image : Other : Subliminal Message of film : ````````````````````````````

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Does the film uses woman as a Sex symbol : Yes No Explain : Does the film uses women in their advertisement to as a “ sex appeal ‘’ To sell more : Yes No Explain : Further Comment on Film :

Content Analysis for el rageba         

Name of the movie: “ra3’eba “”’the desire.

Name of the director : Ali BAdra7án The genre of the film: 1) Drama 2) Comedy 3) Thriller 4) Romance 5) Action 6) Other

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Main Characters : Three Characters Name : Nema Gender: Male Female Role: 1) major 2) minor 3) individual 4) group Age: 1) child 2) teenager 3) adult 4) elderly Marital status: 1) single 2) married 3) divorced Employment: 1) housewife 2) low salary worker 3) high position 4) unemployed 5) other: Used to be a French teacher and was fired from her job.

Character relation to others: 1) wife 2) daughter 3) stranger 4) friend 5) mother 6) lover 7) other :sister for another character.

The character’s actions in the story: 1) Submissive 2) abusive 3) helpless 4) other Further Description of the character:

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Name of the character : Lela Gender: Male Female Role: 1) major 2) minor 3) individual 4) group Age: 1) child 2) teenager 3) adult 4) elderly Marital status: 1) single 2) married 3) divorced Employment: 1) housewife 2) low salary worker 3) high position 4) unemployed 5) other Character relation to others: 1) wife 2) daughter 3)stranger 4)friend 5)mother 6) lover 7) other wife and nema’s sister .

The character’s actions in the story: 1) Submissive 2) abusive 3) helpless 4) other Further description of the character:

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Character ‘s name : Hosam Gender: Male Female Role: 1) major 2) minor 3) individual 4) group Age: 1) child 2) teenager 3) adult 4) elderly Marital status: 1) single 2) married 3) divorced Employment: 1) housewife 2) low salary worker 3) high position 4) unemployed 5) other Character relation to others: 1) wife 2) daughter 3) stranger 4) friend 5) mother 6) lover 7) other husband The character’s actions in the story: 1) Submissive 2) abusive 3) helpless 4) other

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Type of violation to women : verbally Physically by VIOLENCE Rape Distorted and weak image All the above Other (Specify ) 

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No of scenes where there is abuse for woman :

Verbal abuse: 1 Physical abuse: 3 Rape: 2 Distorted image: 2 Other:

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Subliminal Message of film: Need and desire of women for men and sex. And that with man she finds protection. How this desire for men can lead her to be insane. If this desire is not met.

Does the film uses woman as a Sex symbol: Yes No Explain: Does the film uses women in their advertisement to as a “sex appeal ‘’ To sell more: Yes No Explain: Nadia el gender (ne3ma) and alham shahin (Lela) appear on the ad (PRIVIEW ) wearing revealing clothes.

Operational and conceptual definitions 

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Perception: The process through which people take raw sensation from the environment and interpret them, using knowledge, experience and understanding of the world so that the sensations become meaningful experiences.

Operational definition The process by which people receive and interpret the image of women portrayed in the films.

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Gender: The psychological phenomenon referring to learned sex related attitudes. In a sociological perspective it’s the meanings of maleness and femaleness in social contexts.

Operational: Sex roles including behavior, work and power between males and females in the films including certain stereotypes

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Abuse: Violence: an act carried out with the intention or perceived intention of causing physical pain or injury to another person.

1) Normal violence: the commonplace slaps, pushes, shoves, and spankings that frequently are considered acceptable.

2)Abusive violence: The more dangerous acts of violence.

These acts are defined as acts that have the high potential for injuring the person.

Operational Abuse: physical, sexual , emotional, verbal harm done to woman in the film

Survey ď Ž

Our population for the questionnaire is students at AUC and we are selecting a sample of 80 students from the university.

We are using stratified sample. The objective of the questionnaire is to measure gender perception.

This is in addition to In depth interview with film professor.

Our aim through the use of content analysis is to coherently analyze the image of women as portrayed in the sample selected in order to find out how women are portrayed in these films and perceived by society.

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Part one: women are weak characters : 1) strongly agree 2) agree 3)neutral 4)disagree 5) strongly disagree Have you acted violently towards any women before (Sister, daughter, lover, wife, friend) verbally (cursing or harsh words) or have you been exposed as women to verbal violence?

1) Strongly agree 2) agree 3) neutral 4) disagree 5) strongly disagree Have you acted violently towards any women before physically (violence, lapping, beating, shocking, and smashing) or have you been exposed as women to Physical violence?

1) Strongly agree 2) agree 3) neutral 4) disagree 5) strongly disagree It is not wrong that a husband can beat his wife or a female?

1) Strongly agree 2) agree 3) neutral 4) disagree 5) strongly disagree Men have authority on women?

1) Strongly agree 2) agree 3) neutral 4) disagree 5) strongly disagree Do you accept women who are in a higher position than you?

1) Strongly agree 2) agree 3) neutral 4) disagree 5) strongly disagree

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Part Two: Women are : Rate the following from the most thin you agree with to less one : Good householders.

Good mothers Sexy creators Hard workers Equal to men Lovers Naïve Deep thinkers Productive and successful in jobs Explain if you can your choices:

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-When choosing your life and partner in life which is more important: Rate them from most to least important: Look Charter Socio-economic level Education Religious and behavior.

9-I want a wife whose look is: Sexy Moderate Beautiful Not important Other

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10-I prefer her character to be: you can choose more than a character.

Obeying Weak character Strong character Enthusiastic Hard worker Romantic Well educated Submissive Quite Mild Other 11-Do you think the presentation of women as sex symbols in the Egyptian films is a true reflection of reality? I.e. women are sex symbols?

1) Strongly agree 2) agree 3) neutral 4) disagree 5) strongly disagree

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Part Three: 12- What is your favorite kind of movies?

1) Drama 2) Comedy 3) Thriller 4) Romance 5) Action 6) Porn movies 6) Other 12-what makes you enter the movie?

Actors Director Topic of movie Sexual scenes Ad of the film

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13- Have you seen the following films before?

Tick beside the film you saw: Bahethat an al huriya (seekers of freedom) Mowaten w mukhber w haramy El naama wel tawoos El saher Sahar el laialy El eshk wal dam Arak balah Asrar el banat Muzakerat Murahka Emraa waheda la takfy Al akhar Rendezvous El selim wel teban Al raghba El Marah W Al Satoor

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14- In your opinion w hat are the best three and worst three from the above: 15- Do you get emotionally involved after seeing any film?

1) Strongly agree 2) agree 3)neutral 4)disagree 5) strongly disagree 16 – Scenes can effect or provoke you ?

1) strongly agree 2) agree 3)neutral 4)disagree 5) strongly disagree

In Depth Interview: Viola Shafik  

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Discussion Guide: Our research is about abuse of women in Egyptian cinema, whether physiologically, sexually, verbally or stereotyping her as a lover, housewife or sex symbol. How do you think they would influence the society and to what extent does it reflect the society? (Role of women in society, gender perception).

One of the movies we are researching in is ( ekbahesat 3an el horia ). How do you comment on cinema enas eldegagy .

Do you consider she improves or distort the image of women ?

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We suddenly found kind of “sexual revolution “in Egyptian society , this is reflected in several things such as vidioclips and others? How do you explain this? Do you consider it a new or old thing in our society ?

Representing women in film as a sex symbol is it a reflection of the society or a way of gaining profit ?

Which is better in imaging women , contemporary cinema or past one ?

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Do you consider your self as a director responsible for enhancing the perception of Egyptian women in society ? What do you do improve the women’s image in cinema ?

7 what are successful examples for Successful movies in representing women?

8- Do these movies affect certain socio economic class or can affect different classes

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Main points : People think that cinema is a reflection of society ,yet it is not a mirror of the society but a translation of society .

It translate our wishes , .

There is a Gap between what people perceive and critics such as “ el limb “’ movie .

People enjoys violence .

Enas eldegady is not a feminist film maker ,but popular film director , she limits women to sexuality and always judge them as good or bad CHARACTERS. Women identity in her FILMS revolve only around sex, yet we are not driven sexual identity , but there are intellectuals .

Every body is stereotyped in media not only women.

Sexuality used in cinema as a way to gain profit .

Pilot Study :  

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Some questions needed to be changed as they were confusing . Yet ,it succeeded .

Results show that people regard women as important ,yet violence from husband toward wife is accepted and male superiority is also accepted .

People perceive women as lovers, mothers and housewives