The Impact of the Media on Women's Political Participation in Iraq and the Middle East

Abstract

Despite the existence of many theories for women around the world, new theories for gender and feminist perspectives have emerged. Most theorists have focused on the circumstances of women and the imbalances they face in life, so women's rights advocacy organizations are struggling to achieve and build a gender balance to defend their rights in the current era of technology-globalization and new media. One of the theories is a feminist media theory, which focuses on how gender perceptions in the media influence women's political participation. This research, which is a descriptive study, uses the content analysis approach and thematic review to get a purposeful evaluation of the research literature and to analyses the study's data. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the media on the construction of social, cultural, religious, and political barriers to women's political participation, particularly in non-developing states in the Middle East such as Iraq. Media forms in Iraq and the Middle East, particularly digital and social media platforms, have emerged as an important public arena for women's political participation. Despite widespread insecurity and political instability seen as a significant barrier to women's political participation and representation, along with other factors. This is why women in Iraq require different strategies to overcome barriers to political participation due to a variety of factors, including cultural and institutional ones.