Why Does Western Media Continue to Delegitimise the Middle East?

THP’s Middle East Correspondent Leen Assiry spoke with Sarah Hamzah, a Palestinian-Jordanian student in Canada, about the representation of the Middle East in Western Media

“The representation is inaccurate & definitely has an orientalist point of view. It's based on what they think of us, not who we actually are

When the 2019 peaceful protests in Lebanon happened & few people were igniting violence, BBC decided to ignore everything [peaceful] & posted this picture of someone burning something. The news ran with the title “protesting a WhatsApp tax” which downplays the suffering

You also have TV series like “Homeland” [where] every Arab or Muslim character in the show had something to do with terrorism. They showed that [our] countries lacked grocery stores & electricity. The violence done by the white characters & the death of Middle Easterners was “done to protect the nation”

There’s this other movie called “The Dictator” [set] in an imaginary North African country however still follows stereotypes. [The actor] is not North African [nor] Muslim [but] was making fun & doing brown face the whole movie. At the end, a Western character influences the dictator [to become] a decent person, which enforces the idea of "the East needs the help of the West to be decent"

I don't think ignorance [is the reason for such rep.] because look at all the resources available. I'm not saying you should know everything about everyone, but before representing a group of people, the least you can do is research & represent them right. The narrative usually is the uncivilized, backwards & violent one. Our stories are only told when they can frame us in that way. These series, movies & news [channels] have a huge budget. They put all of this energy in these little details. But then they suddenly can't do research or have a consultant to actually know [better]?

There is suffering in the Middle East, but what is being portrayed isn't raising awareness – just stereotypes that hurt the people [more]. This rep. does more harm than good. Let go of this mindset. Show us the love, family, architecture, language & art’’