This interdisciplinary special issue, entitled “Discourse on Violence and Non-violence in Languages, Cultures and Media in the Mediterranean and the Orient,” investigates the theme of violence and non-violence as it manifests across different societal spheres in the Mediterranean and the Orient. The articles collected here aim to unpack these manifestations through discursive, literary, and political analyses of conventional, digital, textual, and oral representations. By approaching violence and non-violence through multidisciplinary lenses, the issue sheds light on the ways social realities—individual as well as collective—are constructed.

This special issue also examines the tensions between socially constructed discourses that seek to represent this phenomenon, either by normalizing it or by contesting its pervasive role in society. Khalid Ait Hadi and Mohamed Bendahan’s contribution opens the issue by examining the role that fake news plays in exacerbating stereotypes in the digital space. Drawing on a discursive analysis of Hirak Arrif (the Rif movement) in northern Morocco, the authors show that fake news amplifies pre-existing stereotypes and prejudices in Moroccan society. This, in turn, intensifies social tensions, leading to polarizing views that threaten Morocco’s social cohesion. Validating false claims and beliefs can entrench opinions on social issues, making it difficult to bridge polarized positions. By exploiting prejudices, disinformation turns the digital space into a site for disseminating radicalizing discourses and a platform for inciting violence.

Through the lens of cyberspace, Fadoua Hachimi Alaoui’s article highlights the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in cyber-intimidation and cyber-humiliation through the use of deepfakes and chatbots. The study analyzes cyberviolence through sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives. The author demonstrates that the discursive formation of virtual identities through AI jeopardizes victims’ personal safety, while also adversely affecting their mental health and social identities. Previously, intimidation and bullying were prevalent at macro-interpersonal and macro-social levels. Today, the exponential spread of information technology has had a nefarious impact because the actor-users behind the production of these virtual identities can remain anonymous in the digital space while targeting specific groups through hateful speech and stereotypes.

Using media framing theory and corpus semantics, Yacine Boulaghmen offers a discursive analysis of the term ‘Pipelinestan’ as a neologism. The discursive formation of this word reveals “liquid wars” and interlacing relationships between energy production, global tensions, and conflict. The author outlines the use of ‘Pipelinestan’ as a discursively structured term applied to geo-energetic wars and employed in French political sparring. As a portmanteau, ‘Pipelinestan’ can be used authoritatively by political figures, such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to suggest that a far-right opponent, Éric Zemmour, has a vested interest in energy-driven geopolitical conflicts and violence. The article also considers the possibility of integrating this neologism into the French lexicon.

Nadia Chaafi contributes to this issue by examining the complex relationship between violence and wisdom in Moroccan proverbs through a multidisciplinary lens. Based on anthropological and sociological analyses, the author explores the relationship between violence and wisdom not as mutually exclusive concepts, but as linguistic and social constructs. These constructions provide pragmatic guidance for discerning between the use of violence and the use of wisdom, alternating between firmness and discipline on the one hand and, on the other, dialogue and social intelligence as means of attaining social order and cohesion. The article also highlights the relevance of transmitting proverbs as an oral tradition that encapsulates age-tested wisdom and speaks to current issues of governance and conflict management.

Delving into the literary dimensions of the tragedy of the human condition in French literature, Alieh Saddaghian offers a different perspective through which to revisit the recurring theme of violence and non-violence in the works of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Le Clézio’s work focuses on manifestations of violence in modern societies, targeting the most fragile and disadvantaged segments of life in Western cities—namely the poor, migrants, and abused women. Saddaghian shows how Le Clézio’s writing engages socially with systemic violence, both physical and psychological, and connects it to the histories of colonialism and capitalist systems through which economic and social marginalization has been produced and experienced in urban centers.

Exploring violence as depicted in film, Chakoui Huseini examines contemporary Iranian society through the lens of Asghar Farhadi. Farhadi’s films reveal physical, symbolic, and economic violence perpetrated against women within a patriarchal social order that contributes to their marginalization. Huseini unpacks how Farhadi’s work foregrounds cultural and societal norms that drive the reproduction of cyclical violence. In these films, the focus is placed on women in moments of decision-making, revealing how they navigate conflicting social norms amid the discursive constraints of domination.

Violence and non-violence can be intricately connected in popular discourse. In this regard, Younes Zalzali analyzes the work of Salam Al-Rassi, which critiques the dystopic effects of sectarian violence on nation-building in Lebanon. Al-Rassi’s work reflects the duality of cultural norms and popular values that can promulgate intolerance and violence while also promoting non-violence, tolerance, and unity. Zalzali’s analysis shows how folk literature is mobilized to formulate tales of collective consciousness that promote coexistence and tolerance, away from regional, group, and sectarian fragmentation. The article further highlights folk literature as a means of forging moral resistance to disunity, bringing into focus the relationship between collective heritage, land, and a shared sense of human identity.

While analyzing the role that violence plays in popular discourse, Mohamed Cheikh Bain and Belid Gliih draw on discourse-analytic approaches to examine the ways in which popular proverbs can underpin gender discrimination. The authors analyze 272 Moroccan proverbs related to women. Some portray women as less capable or less deserving of respect, while others paradoxically elevate their status as revered mother figures. Although proverbs have long served as a repository of ancestral wisdom, the article stresses the need to assess their role in reproducing stereotypes that foster a culture capable of justifying disrespectful, aggressive, and violent behavior.

Mohamed Algrini’s article examines the influential role that media coverage plays in individual and collective acts of violence. Such acts have become more widespread through social media, which facilitates the propagation of violence-driven ideologies. Media also plays a central role in shedding light on the economic, social, and cultural factors that lead to violence. The author argues that, given the pivotal role of media in shaping public opinion, confronting extremist violence requires cross-regional coordination and cooperation among media outlets in the Arab world. To play a constructive role and promote social cohesion, these outlets should promote messages of tolerance, solidarity, and acceptance of others.