Gender Islamophobia. The print media construction of “the” “Muslim” woman: dichotomisation as a differentiation strategy

Feldmann P. Gender Islamophobia. The print media construction of “the” “Muslim” woman: dichotomisation as a differentiation strategy. Jahrbuch für Islamophobieforschung. Islamophobia Studies Yearbook. 2017;8:29-56.The article examines how stereotypical and prejudiced representations of female Muslims in German print media contribute to the reproduction of Islamophobic and anti-Muslim narratives in general, with a specific focus and emphasis on Gender Islamophobia. The paper refers to the postcolonial theoretical approaches of Orientalism, Critique of Occidentalism and the concept of Othering as the analytical basis for deciphering the marking of difference and the process of hegemonic distancingof the majority society with respect to Muslim women. The core findings, that German media representations of Muslim women are strongly undifferentiated, partially derogatory and primarily working with hegemonic practices, in which Muslim women do not speak for themselves, but remain the objects of speech, are elaborated by analysing three crucial examples of derogatory representations: the headscarf, questions of emancipation and paternalistic discourses. By creating and reproducing discourse peaks, a conflict-linked, unilateral discourse on women with Muslim background is promoted, which is neither representative, nor considers the diverse and manifold forms of Muslim life, but excludes and ignores these in favour of controversial topics. The examination of underlying mechanisms of minority representation in German media illustrates the conscious and/or unconscious practices of exclusion and discrimination. The article embeds empirical survey panel data on attitudes towards Islam and Muslim women in Germany. The theoretical framework derives from Postcolonial Studies and deals with the gender-specific representation of Muslim women as the “other” in German society