Women Discrimination and Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: A Critical Discourse Analysis Study of Al-Qabbani’s Poetry

In light of critical discourse analysis, the current study examines ideological representations of women in Nazzar Al-Qabbani's Arabic poetry.  Its aim is to expose and analyze the forms in which his poetry discriminates against women and represents them ideologically. The main hypothesis holds that Al-Qabbani, who dedicated his poetry to the defense of women's rights, often tends to portray women—especially Arabic women—in a derogatory light. To examine and explicate implicit ideologies, and to provide psychological and analytical justification for their interpretation, an eclectic model is developed that incorporates both VanDijk's (2006) model of the ideological square and Glick and Fiske’s (1996) the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Another hypothesis is that it is the benevolent perception of women not the hostile (being the two divisions of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory) which can justify Al-Qabbani’s discriminatory stance. Benevolent sexism explains discrimination against women by demonstrating how apparently favorable attitudes, such idealization, protection, and adoration, serve to limit women's social roles and legitimize their subordination.  As for the problem of this study, there is currently no critical study that is based on academic theory that studies Al-Qabbani’s ideological representations of women. It is concluded that Al-Qabbani discriminates against women in his poetry despite his claim that he is a feminist and this can be traced to the fact that the society he is raised in left its traces on him. Another important remark is that Al-Qabbani objectifies female’s body as an appeal to market his poetry.

As for the problem of this study, there is currently no critical study that is based on academic theory that studies Al-Qabbani’s ideological representations of women. It is concluded that Al-Qabbani discriminates against women in his poetry despite his claim that he is a feminist and this can be traced to the fact that the society he is raised in left its traces on him. Another important remark is that Al-Qabbani objectifies female’s body as an appeal to market his poetry.