Representing Muslim Women Converts in Algerian Newspaper’s discourse

Abstract

Women representation in media has been a hot debate for many years. More specifically the debate about Muslim women converts. Their cases represent a fertile ground to be investigated as belonging to a community that has been discussed for a long time in academia; mainly, after the phenomenon of Islamophobia and the struggle to improve the status of Muslim women in their societies. Moreover; studies concerning Muslim women converts were almost based on narratives and stories (Mansoureh Chavoshpour 1998, Caroline Neumueller 2012, Sabina Catlin Wahl 2014 ). The current study aims at examining critically the portrayal of Muslim converts through Algerian media mainly newspaper articles. It is intended to unveil the ideological representation of women who converted to Islam under media coverage and to disclose the extent of credibility of this depiction. This study based on CDA investigates the discursive portrayal of female Muslim converts in Algerian media discourse. In order to meet the objectives of this research, following the framework provided by Van Leeuwen (1996–2008), articles collected from Algerian newspapers are analyzed with a specific focus on stereotypes perpetuated about Muslim women converts.