Analyzing the content of women’s programs in official Yemeni mass media [Archives:2007/1113/Front Page]

Fatima Al-Ajel
An analysis of Yemeni women programs in Yemeni mass media reveals different pictures for women portrayed in radio and television programs than those of women portrayed in newspapers. Newspapers are found to be a more neutral medium than other forms of mass media. Several reasons and policies are behind such differences, as reported in the following:

“A mother requests a lot of things from her husband. When she is about to marry, she writes a list of conditions before accepting the marriage.”

Above was a scene in a Yemeni television serial in which women were portrayed as greedy and a source of problems in the family. This is what some types of media try to reflect without realizing the negative results that will affect society and the lives of women in particular.

Ahmed Al-Ojeal, the chief of the information administration in the general company for Radio and Television described women's roles in most Yemeni television dramas as traditional ones, in which mostly the negative behaviors of women are pictured. Such roles never portray the reality of Yemeni women; instead, they distort it.

Social and political reasons are behind limiting women's roles to traditional ones. There are some women's rights issues such as calling for women's freedom, reforming laws concerning women, and others which have received limited exposure. Ali Al-Ajrei, the director of the political programs section in Sana'a radio, explained why it is difficult to portray different pictures for Yemeni women, saying, “radio audiences are mostly from rural areas