Women In The Media In Kuwait Research

Women in The Media in Kuwait Research

Kuwait is a Middle Eastern country boarded on the east by the Arabian Gulf and slot in between Iraq and Saudi Arabia on the south and west. Kuwait became a fully independent country since 1961. Kuwait was the first Arab country in the Gulf to have an elected parliament. Women were not allowed to vote or elect or stand as candidates in the elections until 1999, when Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah issued a decree giving women their political rights but it was defeated in the National Assembly. Finally, in 2005 Kuwaiti parliament gave women their fully political rights.

In pre-oil, Kuwaiti women were forbidden from going to schools and usually were allowed only to recite Quran at (Al Mutawa'a) house. The merchant classes were the first to educate their daughters to extend their families' power. After the new oil economy stage, women started to participate in the society to change stereotypes and traditional role. In addition they started to deal with the positive changes on lifestyle and contributed in the development of Kuwait society. Without any doubt, when women in Kuwait were granted the right for education by law, their life started to change and became part of the workforce. Education gave women the power to claim for their rights by the efforts of other women who were working in media sectors. Kuwaiti women in media highlighted and raised their problems and demands through TV and Radio programs, articles published in the newspapers, TV drama and plays on the theatre stage. Media was the most effective field that women made progress and gained power to achieve their goals.

Media is a broad term that includes mass and social media; mass media is the means of transmitting messages to broad audiences. It includes television, radio, newspaper, magazines, books and so forth. Social media are the means of connecting and interacting actively it includes cell phones, e-mails, PTA and the web. Media in Kuwait includes news, newspapers, television, radio, journals, news services, press abstracts, publishing and bookseller associations. Kuwaiti women made a good contribution in the media because Kuwait has the most vocal and transparent media among Arab countries also well known in the freedom of press. The government funds some of the newspapers and satellite channels and owned Kuwait news agency (KUNA). I 2009, Kuwait had fifteen newspapers companies besides the English newspapers; Arab times, and Kuwait times. The Kuwaiti law controls media to forbid insulting religion references related to God, Islam, and Profit Mohammed (PBUH). Moreover, another law was made to forbid anybody from criticizing the ruling family in specific the Emir. In order to join media a person has to stick to the pervious laws concerning religion and the Emir otherwise he/she will be eligible for fines or send to the jail. Under the Press and Publication Law, the government suspended some of the local newspapers for violating this law for example; Al-Anba'a was suspended for five days for publishing an article about separating between the positions of crown prince from prime minister. Women respected both laws in media especially in the press. In the old days rarely women were encourage to join media in Kuwait because it is an Islamic country and women were preferred to stay home. Some women were very lucky because they have been married to an open-minded educated husbands and made positive impact on the women who had joined Kuwaiti media and became stars of Kuwaiti society. It was noticeable that Kuwaiti women in the media were attacked by some Islamic groups. Kuwaiti women who wear the hijab didn't dare to study any subject related to media.

Studies and social research proved the impact of media messages on the individual behavior and collective beside their power on the political decision. Women started media in Kuwait through television, radio, the press and other means; the famous publication was through T.V. Kuwait T.V. began to broadcast at the earliest sixties in black and white, the building was closed to the Dsman Palace. The first Kuwaiti woman who entered the media on Kuwaiti television in 1961 was Fatima Hussein, followed by a number of announcers such as Nouria Al-Sdani, Anissa Jafar who was known as "Mama Anissa". Other active women in Kuwait radio were; Amina Al-Ansari, Iqbal Al-Gharaballi and Amal Al-Abdullah who later turned to the T.V. activities, the previous names were the first generation of female announcers in Kuwait T.V. and radio.

One of the most famous announcers in Kuwait T.V. and radio is Fatimah Hussein. Fatimah Hussein Al-Essa Al-Qanaie, born in Kuwait 1937, completed her Secondary School Education in Kuwait and was granted a scholarship by Government to study abroad in the University. She was the first woman who was allowed to study out of Kuwait at Cairo University, College of Arts, and Journalism Department 1956-1960. After graduation she was married in 1960 to Suliman Al Mutawa and accompanied him to the USA for his Master Degree. She did not waste her time and decided to study English at the Community Services Department of Columbia University. She started to practice broadcasting in New York, with the Voice of America Radio, where she prepared and presented messages to Radio Kuwait, under the theme name "Journal of a Kuwaiti Lady in New York". Radio Kuwait awarded her efforts and offered her another scholarship to study the art of Broadcasting in the University of New York and she managed to take several courses in the Art in the Art of Broadcasting. After she returned to Kuwait and started to work at Radio Kuwait she prepared he own daily program about woman