Women and the Media in Jordan

"Hugely important and relevant work that will be extensively debated and quoted for years to come"

– Prof. Salam Al-Mahadin, Middle East University



"In this highly readable investigation into day-to-day constraints and successes experienced by women in and through the media in Jordan, Ebtihal Mahadeen shines a light on intricate and overlapping challenges that apply more widely."

– Prof. Naomi Sakr, Westminster University

"This book has established Mahadeen’s position as one of the major analysts of Arab media and gender, and it is essential reading and reference work for students and academics who seek to combine Media Studies and Gender Studies."

– Prof. Noha Mellor, University of Bedfordshire/University of Stockholm



This book provides a feminist, critical study of how gender power relations are played out through and across multiple mediated arenas in contemporary Jordan. It departs from an understanding of women’s status in Jordan as a highly charged subject, and a view of the media as not just a locale where tensions play out, but also an important arena for contestation and resistance. The book examines the dynamic relationship between women and the media in Jordan as it manifests at three key levels: labour, representation, and activism. To do so, it engages with wider issues: the political economy of the media, regulatory and legal frameworks, Jordanian women’s economic participation, the history of Jordanian feminist activism, gender-based violence, and the political context of the Arab Spring in Jordan. Through choice case studies, the book unpacks the complex role of legal, political, and social factors in shaping women’s relationship to the media. It centres women’s experiences and highlights their agency, disobedience, and efforts to negotiate and resist the limitations imposed by Jordanian patriarchy and, in doing so, it illustrates how gender, power, and resistance interplay through and within Jordanian media.

Ebtihal Mahadeen is Lecturer in Gender and Media Studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research addresses the interaction between gender, sexuality, and the media within the Jordanian context/MENA region. She has published extensively on the gendered politics of culture, mediated femininities and masculinities, and the media as sites of hegemony and resistance.