How are the structures of power and the notion of agency among Syrian women during the recent Syrian conflict connected? To explore this matter, Rand El Zein investigates gender politics around displacement, conflict, the body, and the nation. In doing so, she outstandingly reconciles critical media theory as myriad and productive with the theoretical concepts on subjectivity, power, performativity, neoliberalism, and humanitarian governance. The book examines how the Arab television news discursively represented the experiences of Syrian women during the conflict in relation to the four main concepts: violence, vulnerability, resilience, and resistance.

Rand El Zein, born in 1991, is a researcher from Beirut, Lebanon. She received her PhD in communication studies at Universität Salzburg and her MA in Media Studies at the American University of Beirut. Her research focuses on Arab media, feminist theory, and cultural studies.