Racist and sexist assumptions endured in UK media coverage of Malala Yousafzai
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A new study has found that seemingly positive media coverage of feminist campaigner Malala Yousafzai is actually full of patronising assumptions about women in Muslim countries.
The study analysed more than 140,000 words of coverage of activist Yousafzai in the nine months after she was attacked by the Pakistani Taleban. It found the fearless and eloquent campaigner was reduced to a passive victim by the British media. In some cases, she was simply referred to as “Shot Pakistani Girl”.
The study was carried out by Rosie Walters, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Bristol’s School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies. She said: “The West has often been guilty of portraying women in Muslim countries as passive and as victims. Malala Yousafzai challenges that stereotype in every way, which is why I wanted to analyse the coverage of her.
“She even said herself that she doesn’t want to be portrayed as the young woman who was shot by the Taleban, but rather as th...
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