The portrayal of gender in a textbook is able to influence students’ understanding of the concept of gender equality (GE). The unfair portrayal of women in textbooks will have a negative effect on students’ conceptions of gender. Although some previous studies have found that textbooks portray a fair and constructive picture of women by positioning them on a par with men, other studies have shown that gender inequality still exists in the contents of Arabic textbooks, presenting stereotypical and gender bias. To fill this void, this article uses critical discourse analysis to analyze the content of Arabic textbooks for non-Arabic speakers. It aims at portraying women in Arabic textbooks to non-Arabic speakers. The study findings revealed the tendencies to male firstness by positioning the characters of women being more likely portrayed as subordinates in the Arabic textbooks. In addition, there are imbalances in women portrayal in the visibility, order of mention, and male-to-female ratios in the Arabic textbooks. The results also showed that women in some parts of the Arabic textbooks are also portrayed in a constructive portrayal of having equal rights as men in terms of profession and access to education. This study highlights the importance of the concept of GE in Arabic textbooks to increase social awareness.

This research study seeks to conduct an objective investigation into the current curriculum applicable to written Arabic instruction and its overall design, to come up with improvements that positively impact students' writing skills. The primary inspiration for this study is the ideas of Adab and Humanities of UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, consisting of objectives, content, methods, media, and evaluation. To accomplish these objectives, this study has utilized the research and development method, which happens to be a procedure used for developing and validating educational products. This method is based on the steps of analysis developed and established by Borg and Gall. This research study has been conducted based on three fundamental theories: Intentional interactions, cognitive theory, and competency-based language teaching. The findings revealed that the current curriculum applicable to written Arabic instruction had several faults: an extremely rule-oriented teaching program, lack of creativity in the teaching materials, usage of only markers and white boards as media, and an unhealthy focus on results. The developed Arabic curriculum has been proven to possess increased merits: providing learners with ample training for the application of language rules, attractive teaching materials, usage of several teaching methods, placement and achievement tests, and multimedia.