Saudi Women Participation in Sports: Critical Analysis of Presupposition Strategies in Arabic Online News Discourse

Abstract

Saudi women face many restrictions compared to other Arab or Muslim women as they have been barred (legally and or culturally) from doing many things by themselves or can only do some activities with the presence of a male guardian. Over the last two decades, there are many struggles recorded by the mass media, particularly the newspapers and the satellite channels. The media has been reported on the debates between groups demanding more rights for Saudi women and the conservative groups preserving the fundamental of Saudi's culture heavily based on the Islamic teaching and values. Hence, this paper examines the way modern standard Arabic online news of Al-Jazirah (AJ) of Saudi Arabia and BBC Arabic (BBCA) of United Kingdom portrayed the challenges faced by Saudi women in their involvement in international sporting events. This paper aims to analyse the ways that language is exploited in BBCA and AJ to report on struggles around the participation of Saudi women in sports, particularly in the used of presupposition strategies as one of discourse construction strategy utilised by the selected news outlets. Therefore, the paper critically examines news articles published by BBCA and AJ between 2010 and 2014 using a qualitative approach based on the textual-oriented Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Fairclough, media discourse of Ruth Wodak and Discourse and ideology of Van Dijk. The preliminary result shows that the two news outlets have a different way of portraying the restriction of Saudi women' participation in international sporting events according to their ideologies. Thus, at the end of the study, the researchers reveal the outlets' stand on this issue. Hence, highlight the hidden ideologies at the back of the struggles in the construction of Arabic online news discourses around Saudi women in general.

A leadership-based framework for improving Saudi Arabian female participation in sports

“…Among the transformational leadership sub-scales, inspirational motivation was observed to be the most frequently displayed subscale. Given the various socio-cultural barriers for females in Saudi Arabia (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28) from entering sports, motivational approach could be an effective strategy to boost the morale and engagement of the female sports persons in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, inspirational motivation exhibited strong correlation with sports engagement sub-scales including vigor, dedication, and absorption; compared to other transactional leadership sub-scales.…”

“…Although, there is issues with gender equality in sports participation globally, its impact was mainly observed in the Middle East till the past decade (23). Furthermore, it was observed that when compared to other Arab or Muslim women, Saudi women are subject to a greater number of limitations since they are prohibited (legally or culturally) from doing many things by themselves and are required to have a male guardian present to participate in some activities (24). Young Arabic Muslim women who participate in sports are perceived as taking on a challenge to the limits of their ethnic identities when compared to their peers who do not (24).…”

“…Furthermore, it was observed that when compared to other Arab or Muslim women, Saudi women are subject to a greater number of limitations since they are prohibited (legally or culturally) from doing many things by themselves and are required to have a male guardian present to participate in some activities (24). Young Arabic Muslim women who participate in sports are perceived as taking on a challenge to the limits of their ethnic identities when compared to their peers who do not (24). Young Arabic Muslim women who firmly position themselves within the context of their ethnic identities are not interested in sports since participating in athletics is not viewed as respectable femininity among Arabic Muslim culture (25).…”

Verbal processes in the Covid-19 news discourses: An analysis of ‘aswaqpress.com’ coverage on Malaysia

“…Among the most significant findings in these studies is that the newspaper readership received a substantial impact on institutionalised participation. Other studies are concerned about revealing that political institutions have used the media to serve their ideas, stands, and promote their ideology and propaganda (Harun, Ismail, Daoudi, & Thompson, 2018;Harun & Ismail, 2020;Ismail et al, 2018, Ismail, 2019Mellor, 2011).…”

“…With the emergence of Arabic unity discourse and Arab national identity in the 1950s, further enhanced in the 1990s with Arab transnational television broadcasting, Arab media has been exploited to serve this political purpose (Lahlali, 2011). In addition, previous literature on the Arab media has highlighted the features of Arabic transnational media outlets by focusing on bias and independence of various media institutions (Harun, Ismail, Daoudi, & Thompson, 2018;Harun & Ismail, 2020;Ismail et al, 2018;Ismail, 2019;Mellor, 2011;Miladi, 2006;Zayani & Ayish, 2006). Despite the claim of impartial, independence, objectivity, and privately-owned, these Arabic media outlets have been used as political tools and controlled by people close to the government (Ismail et al, 2018;Ismail, 2019;Harun, Ismail, Daoudi, & Thompson, 2018).…”