ABSTRACT
While Arab newsrooms have provided new opportunities for women to work as reporters and presenters, the increasing visibility of women in the newsrooms has not ended the patriarchal order. In fact, women journalists are often assigned ‘soft news,’ while men journalists have dominated the political beat particularly in conflict zones. This chapter discusses some of those challenges, which have been exacerbated by the recent uprising and its repercussions in many Arab countries, particularly Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, and Iraq. The chapter discusses the increasing challenges facing women journalists, and which have forced many women TV presenters off air for expressing certain political views, and thus violating the perceived standard of social responsibility. For those women journalists, on the other hand, the political turmoil in the region has only intensified the challenge to adhere to what they perceive as objectivity and neutrality.
