Taken Film Analysis

One common stereotype that I’ve personally observed is that all Muslim people are “terrorists”. This unfortunate assumption has led to serious accounts of discrimination. It is entirely unfair to assume that because of a small collection of religious extremists in the

Mariam and Laila represent only a part of all the trials and tribulations the Afghan women have endured throughout their lives and project how violence can affect individuals emotionally, mentally and physically.

The film “Osama” is a powerful film, which focuses on the horrific life women in Afghanistan have to go through. The film provides an inside look of how terrible women and young girls are treated by the Taliban, the grueling living conditions and lack of food, and the training young boys are taught by the Taliban. The film showed a massive group of widows who are protesting in order to be allowed to work in order to provide their family with food. Instantly the Taliban hose the women down and begin shooting, creating a fear of being caught amongst the women. The grueling film focuses on a young girl who is forced to transition her look into a boy in order to provide food for her mother, grandmother, and herself. The girl then becomes recruited by the Taliban, along with the other young boys in the village. Horrified the young girl tries her best to act as a boy, but unfortunately she is discovered by the Taliban of being a girl. She then is condemned to death for this felony. In her case, she is given the punishment of marrying an old Muslim man. Furthermore, the young girl is forced to be locked up

Today one does not even have to wait for a movie to be released. Simply click the “ON” button on a remote and suddenly, thousands of news and television shows are available for one to enjoy. Muslims are also the target of prejudice in these news broadcasts and programs. One such television program released was a drama titled “24.” Issues and Controversies reports: “The show, which deals with a counterterrorism unit based in Los Angeles, featured a group of Muslim terrorist characters who were plotting to detonate nuclear weapons in the U.S. At the end of one episode, the terrorists successfully detonated a small bomb in a Los Angeles suburb, killing about 12,000 people” (“Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment”). This fictional show wrongly spreads the stereotypical image of Muslims and their clichéd image of the fundamentalists on 9/11. By adding the title and image of “Muslim” to the phrase “terrorist” the program wrongly advertised that potentially every Muslim could be a terrorist. This stereotypical image is similarly expressed in news broadcasts through the use of terrorism news. By increasingly using terrorism and Muslims in top

In The Photographer Into War- Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders, one of the themes evident within the book is the difference between the stereotypes of Afghan people and who they actually are. The photographer, Didier Lefevre, is fueled by, “a profound respect and love for the people of Afghanistan, and a belief in the importance of their work” ( Lefevre x). The importance in that work was to show humanity in the faces the media portrays as terrorists. The media also portrays Afghanis for being uneducated, sheltered, and driven by religion. Throughout the book there are examples of Afghans that deserve empathy, but one page stood out from the rest: page 176. It displays Bassir Khan’s businessmen and bodyguard sitting unamused in the first panel, with the follow up panels of them leaving Didier in the room. The first panel in specific represents both the humanitarian and sheltered themes of the book. What is most interesting about the first panel, is the image itself confirms racial ambiguities. The men shown are of darker complexions, which is perceived as being inferior to whites. On top of that, it confirms that “non-whites” are violent, as one of the men are holding a gun. They are all men, wearing turbans and hats and worn down jackets. Peering at the first panel makes readers think Lefevre failed his mission to humanize Afghanis, but a closer look at the narrator 's block tells another story.

The article by Meetoo and Miraz define extreme forms of domestic violence, which often lead to the death of a woman at the hands of her loved ones or community. Interestingly, "honour" only arises as a motivation for murder when religion or ethnic communities are involved. In the article, the author asserts that ethicized women (women of colour and other minorities) who are victims of honour killings are unrecognized in both multicultural discussion and domestic violence discussion. Since 9/11, these women have become much more visible, but unfortunately this increased recognition is due to a heightened sense of fear and danger associated with the idea of a "Muslim alien 'other'". By employing an approach focused more on human rights, people

Hollywood adapts, validates, and creates such crude representations of the Islamic world. That has been its primary concern and its sole perspective regarding the Arab other. Such dehumanization used to be merely cultural and biased. In fact, such injustices have always existed both in Hollywood and in other film industries around the world especially by the French and the British. Modern and present day representations, however, are driven by greater motifs and are chiefly political. Following the 9/11 attacks, the demonization of Islam and Arabs has gone wild. The images the media propagated and continues to spread are full of both implicit and explicit messages to trigger hate and anger against the Muslim world and to justify the new burden

Looking at the title to begin, it is obvious that the entirety of this documentary that movies and the media have treated Arabs and Muslims quite terribly. They portray these people as villains and are often seen as these antagonist characters pushed by their stereotype that people from Arab and or Muslim descent are villainous people. The movie creators in Hollywood tend to see Arab and Muslim people as targets to use as anger triggers to the people who watch these movies. What’s worse, is that the people in Hollywood and users of social media have a tremendous influence over other people with their words and actions that these producers make. These influences created nurture a lot of negative opinions and false sides of Arab and Muslim people. A theme assembled in the making of “Reel Bad Arabs” is that Hollywood has a tendency to represent races with problematic stereotypes in the makings of productions. I

According to Schaefer (2012), surveys since 2001 show one in four people believe a number of anti-Muslim stereotypes such as the idea Islam teaches violence and hatred (274). The causes of can be numerous. Perhaps the recent number of political struggles and violent acts between Arab nations has helped fuel these stereotypes. However, with producers rarely portraying Arabs as the “good guy” and with media only reporting on the negative aspects of being Arab, the stigma of Arabs or Muslims being violent and hateful can perhaps never be remedied. As a child and teenage I was rarely, if ever, exposed to the good that Arabs and Muslims contributed.

Muslims are a fine example of an ethnic group who people show prejudice towards. The past has already created a poor image of them, but the recent terrorist attacks involving ISIS have created even a bigger spectacle out of all the Muslims, depicting Islam as inhumane. People find a logic to put every accusation on them. “The mere mention of Islam tends to generate an immediate negative reaction from most people as they associate it with terrorism, hostages, and the explosive situation in the Middle East” (Emery). The public sees Islam with one perspective, ignoring many individuals who may have nothing to do with the past incidents. “This religion has been misunderstood since its earliest beginnings when Muhammed was scorned by the Jewish and Christian communities he tried to convert (Emery). Christianity and Islam are closely related, yet some Christians think of it as strange and erotic because of the way Muslims dress, act, and speak. “The fall of Jerusalem to Islam in 638 A.D and the subsequent exploits of the Crusaders between 1095 and 1291 escalated the level of mistrust and hostility between both the religions” (Emery). It’s quite absurd that such inequity is shown towards them as there has been an instance when an American was involved in a terrorist attack. Timothy McVeigh, a Baptist blew

One of the reasons, why this girl faces this kind of physical torture is because she is a woman of a low-class. Study Guide states, “Postmodern feminists, such as Judith Butler, have argued that gender is a social construction created through discourses of power the norm of heterosexuality” (Alleyson Kreuiter et al. 2015:15). Postmodernism does not care ground zero in its framework like traditionalism. There are no predetermined rules, well-established and long-term principles. Moreover, women in postcolonial times were not only regarded as inferior to men in all aspects but also considered as ‘other’—alien status. Regardless, of the deep physical tortures that were faced by the nomad girl, the male dominance was unable to penetrate her thoughts.

Third and lastly, a veneer of liturgical purity foisted upon the Afghan people. For instance, during the film and specifically the bike scene, women must sequester exposed skin so as to evade the “arousal” of the men around them. Sexual impurity is militated in this fashion. As another example, boys and men are to perform Quran memorization and recitation to purge their minds of impermissible thoughts and to achieve mental acuity. They also are compelled to execute ritualistic ablutions prior to corporate worship and are instructed to to likewise when they experience an involuntary discharge while they

The Christian girls hid under their beds under layers of blankets because they were unable to leave the house. For seven hours, the terrified students lay quiet and moving in the dark. The publication notes that ISIS kidnaps women to turn them into

Gul Meena is a 17-year-old Muslim girl from Pakistan. When she was 12, her family married her off to a 60-year-old Pakistani man. He would abuse her daily and even when she begged him to stop, he wouldn’t. When she attempted to tell her family, they would abuse her for complaining. Her family scolded her and said that her life was her husband, and nothing more. Gul wanted to leave her husband, and the life thrust upon her. She fell in love with a man from Afghanistan. Gul decided to run away from her husband in Pakistan and left for Afghanistan. Gul hoped and prayed that her family wouldn’t find her. However, just a few short days after she fled her home and left her husband, Gul's brother found her in Afghanistan. He armed himself with an ax, stabbed her lover to death, and struck Gul 15 times. A passerby found Gul laying in her blood and parts of her brain hanging out of her skull. The passerby quickly rushed Gul to a hospital with little chance of her survival. She went into surgery and miraculously came out alive. However, Gul had nowhere to go, no one to care for her. The government wanted nothing to do with her, and she was dead to her family. She stayed in the clinic for two months due to the generosity of the doctors who donated money to pay for her. Now, she lives in a sanctuary with other Afghan

This act of bigotry was condemned in some quarters, however, the Delta/ASA pilot and the frightened passengers received support from numerous voices among the American commentariat (Cole, 2011). Thus, the discrimination against Muslims in the United States is still evident and the need for more objective portrayal of Muslims in Hollywood films is continually increasing.