During a short conversation with two distinguished Saudi TV hostesses, Fadiah Al-Taweel and Banan Al-Baik, I was asked a very important question. “What is the role of the media in bringing together the points of view of men and women and vice versa? What do the media do in order to create a mutual understanding between the two genders?”
The truth is that the very many debates about this issue have brought many questions to my mind. Trying to understand our realities and communities can be very difficult at times. It could be said that females may not have fully understood each other and therefore it is impossible for men to understand them. Yet the balanced equation remains as it is; men and women have both been created to complement each other.
What does understanding the two genders exactly mean? How do we define “mutual understanding”? Everyone is taking part in explaining, clarifying, defining and illustrating this point and I believe that there is no specific definition of “mutual understanding between men and women.” It could be defined as the quick natural feeling of the other person’s characteristics and personality; or the way one realizes the desire of the other without having to say or ask anything; or we could also say that it is being capable of justifying the other person’s behavior and expecting his or her actions, reactions and the equity of this behavior.
People vary in their definitions and analyses when it comes to this issue because people have their own philosophies, skills in interpreting and ways of communicating.
As for the role of the media, undoubtedly the media play a big role in different scopes, but not in making men understand women and vice versa. Perhaps the media are fruitful soil for women to plant many of their wishes in order to make their dreams materialize.
Mass media outlets have introduced women’s way of thinking and logic to the wider world. Because of the media, we have become aware of women’s issues, their characteristics and features and we’ve realized so much of what interests them. In other words, the media have introduced the concept of understanding women enabling us to read reality as it is. The media have been an eye-opener to the realities that we used to ignore. Fundamentally the media made us realize how much we’ve been neglecting our mothers, wives, daughters and sisters.
The woman is a beautiful human being afraid of exposing her real self or illustrating her ideas confidently because she might feel that she doesn’t belong to this community. May be she feels she’s not part of its natural and lively components. Therefore, she keeps herself tidy in a way that won’t upset the community.
For how long will the community keep the woman surrounded with weird, irreligious standards that restrain her with racial, tribal and social shackles and add to her pessimism?
For how long will she be deprived of her human rights? For how long will she be considered a creature only created to satisfy man and guarantee his progeny and power on earth? Is this the only script written for her?
A woman’s character is vital through her active contribution and basic influence in serving and developing humanity. Our communities are still occupied with categorizing the woman in a pre-Islamic ignorant way that results in depriving her the rights of an honored, cared for and complete Muslim.
