Portraits of Muslim women in the Spanish press: the "burkini" and "burqa" ban affair

Abstract

According to diverse reports and studies, islamophobia has become a social threat in the European context. Also, several investigations indicate that Muslim women are the main victims of this type of hostility (gender islamophobia), and stress that the media shows a stereotyped image of Muslim women. This paper aims to the study, from the theory of framing, the media image of Muslim women in the Spanish press. The study focuses on the news related to the controversy arising in 2016 by the prohibition of the burkini in some regions in Europe, and the subsequent reopening of the debate on the prohibition of the integral veil in Germany. For this purpose, a quantitative content analysis has been applied to 152 news items published regarding this issue by the five newspapers with the largest circulation in Spain (El País, El Mundo, La Vanguardia, El Periódico and ABC). The analysis consists on an exploratory study to identify the news frames following the scale of Semetko and Valkenburg (2000). In addition, an original methodological design has been applied to study the specific frames regarding Muslim women. The results indicate that, in most cases, the media representation of Muslim women focuses on the “victim” and “threat” frames, even though the “victim” frame appears to a greater extent.