Discourse, subject and media in Foucault: the veil on muslim women

Abstract

The aim of this work is to understand the discourses circulated on the “Veja on-line” magazine during the years of 1995 through 2005 on the way of being of the Muslim women, in view of the relationship between the verbal and the nonverbal, whose sign, at first, that appeared constant among them was the veil. For that, we make use of following Foucauldian notions, in respect to their understanding of the principle of the “subject”: a) “subject and power”, whose approach identifies the subject's power strategies; and b) “subject and the media”, given the influence of the media in the recognition of the discursive construction and the representation of identities. This research revealed as a result three separate statements of the subjects which are women wearing the veil in the media during this period: one showing it as a mother, another which saw it as a public and modern person, and yet another that saw its political dimension.