چکیده فارسی: The important role of the media in shaping public opinion is obvious, and, clearly, visual media enjoy higher significance due to the wide scope of their audience, in comparison with print and audio media. After the Islamic Revolution [of 1979], the media started to downgrade Islam and its teachings, including hijab. This paper attempts to answer the following question using a descriptive-analytical method: What are the media tricks for the representation of Islamic hijab? It seems that methods such as presenting an unreal conception and picture of Islamic hijab, creating distorted images of the success of hijab-wearing women, giving the stage to and promoting secular preachers while introducing them as the only Muslim thinkers, completely refraining from showing hijab-wearing women, deliberate showcasing of Muslim hijabless women’s abilities, justifying the maltreatment of Muslims, especially hijab-wearing women, extremely low or high focus on the news of hijab and covering and broadcasting no news on the violence against western women are some of the major strategies of these media. It should be noted that the media, especially television, have been successful in a number of cases, but Western hostile policies such as the 2004 anti-hijab law of France, on the one hand, and the revelation of the true image of Islam and hijab, especially through Western hijab-wearing women, on the other hand, have weakened, and sometimes neutralized, the effect of this kind of media propaganda.
Muslim women's hijab in the mirror of Western visual media
English Abstract: The important role of the media in shaping public opinion is obvious, and, clearly, visual media enjoy higher significance due to the wide scope of their audience, in comparison with print and audio media. After the Islamic Revolution [of 1979], the media started to downgrade Islam and its teachings, including hijab. This paper attempts to answer the following question using a descriptive-analytical method: What are the media tricks for the representation of Islamic hijab? It seems that methods such as presenting an unreal conception and picture of Islamic hijab, creating distorted images of the success of hijab-wearing women, giving the stage to and promoting secular preachers while introducing them as the only Muslim thinkers, completely refraining from showing hijab-wearing women, deliberate showcasing of Muslim hijabless women’s abilities, justifying the maltreatment of Muslims, especially hijab-wearing women, extremely low or high focus on the news of hijab and covering and broadcasting no news on the violence against western women are some of the major strategies of these media. It should be noted that the media, especially television, have been successful in a number of cases, but Western hostile policies such as the 2004 anti-hijab law of France, on the one hand, and the revelation of the true image of Islam and hijab, especially through Western hijab-wearing women, on the other hand, have weakened, and sometimes neutralized, the effect of this kind of media propaganda.