Women journalists in Pakistan are on the front line – both of the battleground, and ideologically
January 10, 2013 2 Comments
By Shumaila Jaffery
Shumaila Jaffery is a BBC journalist based in Pakistan (Photo: Shumaila Jaffery)
The recent attack on female polio vaccination workers in Pakistan has reinforced the idea in my mind that extremists have found new targets in their objective to hurt those who do not believe in their agenda of killing and hatred. These new targets are women.
It all started with the attack on the Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai last October. After the international community reacted with utter disgust over the incident, I feel that now militants have made it a point to attack women more vehemently and forcefully than ever before.
Insecurity and fear have been permanent features of life in Pakistan for a while now, particularly for journalists who are not only on the front line of the battleground, along with security personnel and rescue workers, but also on the front line ideologically.
Why women are underrepresented in the Afghan media
November 26, 2012 1 Comment
By Nazira Babori
The first female journalists trained in Afghanistan in more than a decade produce a documentary as part of a ground-breaking training program for Afghan women journalists supported by The Asia Foundation. The hour-long documentary captures the stories of women in Afghanistan, describing both their lives under the Taliban and their hopes for the future (PRNewsFoto/The Asia Foundation)
Progress in the media and freedom of expression are generally viewed as the biggest gains of the post-Taliban era in Afghanistan. Today there are more than 75 television stations, one hundred radio stations and hundreds of publications according to the Ministry of Information and Culture in Afghanistan – a far cry from just one radio station and two papers used solely for the purpose of spreading government propaganda under Taliban rule. Despite some pitfalls, the media community is vibrant and can bring those who commit ills in the government and society to account.
However, this achievement lacks the critical component of the equal representation of women in the field. Many Afghan women looked up to a new dawn when the Taliban regime collapsed. They stepped out of their homes in huge numbers to seek education, join the workforce, and raise their voices through the media. But it was later proved that media is not very rewarding to women.
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Filed under Comment, Guest Posts, INSI Blog Tagged with Afghan Journalists' Safety Committee, Afghanistan, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, AJSC, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, IWPR, local journalists, Ministry of Information and Culture in Afghanistan, Nahid Nazari, Soraya Sobrang, Taliban, women journalists