UK University Inaugurates Innovative Course on "Women, Islam & the Media"

A new university course focusing on women, Islam and the media has become the first module in the UK to academically explore honour crimes and arranged marriage.

The lectures, offered by the University of East Anglia (UEA, pictured above), will begin this week, with 15 students having already enrolled. The syllabus also offers to study the veil and how such Islamic traditions are portrayed across film, TV, advertising and other media.

UEA claims the module, which will teach students about the work of women film-makers in countries where Islam is the dominant religion, is the first of its kind in the UK.

The module is the brainchild of Dr Eylem Atakav, a lecturer in the university's school of Film and Television Studies.

"Women's place in Islam has been widely discussed," she said. "But the relationship between women, Islam and the media has only recently been picked up - particularly in relation to the Arab Spring and new forms of political activism by women.

"This module seeks to explore the role of media in understanding women's place in Islam, and the challenges of representing women and Islam in contemporary media - particularly in film and television - from around the world.

"It will cover different aspects of the relationship between women and Islam - for example, the political and religious resonance of the veil, representation of women as terrorists in films, and the consequences of arranged marriage in television programmes."

Dr Eylem Atakav is also the author of a new book Women and Turkish Cinema: Gender Politics, Cultural Identity and Representation which will be published this year.

Her research interests include the representation of women in contemporary film and television, the implications of the representation of Muslim women in the media, the concept of violence against women, the relationship between women and media, and women and religion.