Depicting the Veil: Transnational Sexism and the War on Terror

In Depicting the Veil, Robin Lee Riley examines a critical and often overlooked effect of September 11th, 2001: the Western media’s portrayal of Afghan and Iraqi women. Riley argues that U.S. policy and, consequently, the media, portray Afghan and Iraqi “women (and indeed all women believed correctly or incorrectly by the Western media to be Muslim) as weak and in need of rescuing, and simultaneously as mysterious, dangerous, and evil” through transnational sexism. This form of sexism, Riley claims, is unique in its “deployment, use, and propagation of ideas about Muslim women to Western audiences…through popular culture” (p. 2). 

Riley analyzes stories and “cultural artifacts” produced by Western journalists and entertainment companies over a ten-year period. Her evidence ranges from articles that ran in The New York Times to the plot and characters of Sex and the City 2. Riley’s initial chapters address the media’s portrayal of Afghan society and women’s veiling in it and the representation of Osama bin Laden’s wives. In later chapters, she examines the portrayal of Saddam Hussein’s female family members and high-ranking female politicians in Iraq. Here, Riley further emphasizes that, absent stereotypical tropes, Middle Eastern women are essentially absent from the media. The final chapter questions the predominant understanding in the West of women’s liberation.

One of the most notable strengths of Riley’s analysis is her emphasis on how women were used as pawns in the invasions. She states that prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, politicians portrayed Afghan and Iraqi women as meek, “a handy excuse” to justify war, but post-invasion, politicians and journalists portrayed the same women as “dangerous, the creators of baby terrorists--or as screens for male bloodthirsty terrorists” (p. 39). Furthermore, media failed the public by promoting such images while repeating “the Bush and Obama administration’s [sic] ostensible concern for Afghan women without question, and… portray[ing] Islam as primitive and archaic” (p. 39). 

Later, Riley argues that the media also failed by not investigating the dangers to women that the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq brought: the death and injury of family members, loss of income, and increasing hazards of “double patriarchy,” as women may experience violence at the hands of both local men and occupying forces. Riley notes that few media outlets have linked the deaths of males due to the invasions to the precarious predicament that comes with women being left as the sole providers for themselves and their families. Riley argues this leads women to turn to prostitution to compensate for loss of income, inadequate wages, and limited job opportunities. Such insight is just one instance of Riley’s refreshing ability to succinctly demonstrate how transnational sexism harms women. 

However, Riley’s strong voice obscures some issues with her manuscript. One of these issues is lumping together different parts of the media, particularly journalism and the entertainment industry, without discussing their differing purposes. Furthermore, the discussion of the entertainment industry’s biases is limited to examples from a few television shows and movies. Because Riley has such a vast collection of examples from which to pull, this discussion of how the entertainment industry portrays Muslim women on the large and small screens leaves readers wanting.

More problematic are the double standards present in Riley’s analysis. For instance, Riley interprets that by refusing to remove the veil, women are refusing to be colonized. Yet, she offers no evidence to back up her interpretation of Afghan women’s actions as such. Thus, although the author criticizes journalists for portraying women as “victims of the burqa” and “patriarchy” and not thoroughly investigating Afghan and Iraqi women’s lives through first-hand accounts, Riley appears to do the same. She merely seems more comfortable with the meanings that she ascribes to women’s actions than the meanings that journalists do. 

Riley’s book discusses the coverage of Afghan and Iraqi women in the Western media, but it also serves as an indictment of the Bush and Obama administrations’ policies and against those who see (or seek) Western values as universal values. Few of Riley’s readers would argue that such actions are acceptable. However, while Riley seems to argue for cultural relativism regarding gender norms in the Middle East, she also seems to hold certain American women in particular disdain. For example, Riley states, “Bin Laden’s wives are always placed in opposition to the Western liberated model of femininity, but here they are also depicted as practicing femininity in a manner reminiscent of the least admirable Western women, such as the Kardashians” (emphasis added) (p. 44). In short, the book denounces certain Western women for failing to adhere to Riley’s standards of propriety for female behavior. 

Depicting the Veil: Transnational Sexism and the War on Terror provides an interesting investigation of the biases in media’s portrayal of Afghan and Iraqi women post-September 11. The book is aimed at academics, but may also be appropriate reading for upper-level undergraduate courses examining women in the Middle East or media biases. Policymakers and journalists would also be able to craft better policies and coverage of the effects of said policies after reading Riley’s monograph.