Hawzah News Agency- The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) has just published a rare glimpse into what a career in media is like for Muslim women, from systematic discrimination to unfair representation.
The anonymous survey was taken by 102 Muslim women with careers across print, broadcast, online media, journalism and more.
Whilst the rates of employment and visibility of Muslim women in media may seem higher than in the past, the report tells us that this is nothing more than tokenism aimed at filling diversity quotas.
“My identity was used for PR purposes, but then, actually, when it came to it, I was easily disposable'', said Saima Mohsin, a Sky News presenter.
The report exposes how women experience regular Islamophobia, toxic newsroom cultures, and suffer with their mental health, especially with the media coverage of the war in Gaza.
To make matters worse, visibly Muslim women in hijab are particularly vulnerable to micro-aggression tactics in the workplace, along with stereotyping and pay disparities.
Considering the recent climate of rising nationalism and Islamophobia across the UK and Europe, it comes as no surprise that 92% of women said that negative views of Islam and Muslims are embedded within media organisations.
“I face Islamophobia every day,” said an anonymous participant, adding further weight to the disturbing finding that 72% of Muslim women experience direct discrimination as a result of their Muslim identity.
Other key findings revealed that 60% have considered leaving the industry altogether, or that 81% believe that Muslim women are unfairly represented in the media.
According to the University of Cambridge, quoted in the report, the rise in Islamophobic attitudes and hostility towards Muslims in Britain are in part a direct cause of how mainstream media reports on the Muslim community.
Alan Moses, the former chair of the newspaper regulator IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation), said that the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the British press had been the “most difficult issue” he had to monitor in his career.
He added that Muslims are “written about in a way that [newspapers] would simply not write about Jews or Roman Catholics''.
Source: 5pillarsuk
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