Behind the veil: AP editorial bias

This is interesting. The AP released a story about a female Egyptian rapper singing about the harassment of women in Egypt. The AP’s first headline and lead paragraph:

Egyptian rapper speaks for women’s rights
CAIRO (AP) — As soon as the beat started, the young woman bobbed her head to the rhythm, raised her hands to get the crowd clapping and then unleashed a flood of rap lyrics that tackled some of the biggest social challenges women face in the Arab world.

And in the revised story:

Veiled Egyptian rapper speaks for women’s rights
CAIRO (AP) — As soon as the beat started, the young veiled woman bobbed her head to the rhythm, raised her hands to get the crowd clapping and then unleashed a flood of rap lyrics that tackled some of the biggest social challenges women face in the Arab world.

Why the difference, AP? The article is accompanied with a photo, and then there’s this paragraph in both versions:

“I wanted to tell girls in Egypt and everywhere else that they are not alone, we all have the same problems, but we cannot stay silent, we have to speak up,” Mahmoud, who wears an Islamic headscarf but not a full-face veil, told The Associated Press.

Do you see the ways the AP plays to the narrative? For whatever reason, and editor decided that the story must carry the words “veiled” in front of “woman” in the headline and lead. Because apparently, God forbid a young Egyptian woman who is neither religious nor veiled should protest the horrible treatment of women in Egypt.

It seems that the Islamists are now running AP’s editorial decisions. Or the cowards.

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