WUNRN
AFGHANISTAN - WOMEN-RUN MEDIA OFFER
RARELY TOLD SIDE OF STORIES
By Amie Ferris-Rotman
| Reuters – July
5, 2011
Afghan women reporters set up sound recorders in a media facility in
KABUL (Reuters) - Farida Nekzad has faced threats of kidnapping, acid attacks and a plot to blow up her apartment since she founded her first news agency in Afghanistan seven years ago.
Members of the Taliban e-mailed some of the warnings; others arrived over the phone. One caller warned she would be murdered and disfigured so horrendously that her family would not be able to recognize her body.
But the mother-of-one, whose most recent project is a news agency that spearheads coverage of the problems that Afghan women face, is undeterred. Wakht, or 'Time' in Nekzad's native Dari, is one of a handful of majority female media outlets springing up across a country where women's voices often go unheard.
It has seven female reporters and three male journalists and operates across 10 provinces.
Nekzad, who has start-up funding from private donors and hopes to become self-supporting through advertising within 18 months, aims to expand from text reports to multimedia ones.
"In 30 years of war, women and children are the ones to suffer the most ... but they are not given any attention and have no media coverage," Nekzad told Reuters, referring to decades-long violence sparked by the Soviet invasion in 1979.
A long-time journalist with international media awards under her belt,
Nekzad first received threats when she co-founded privately-owned news agency
Pajhwok, in 2004 in
They face constant opposition from the Taliban, challenges from more
conservative sectors of a devoutly Muslim society, and staffing and management
issues related to employing women in a country where only a minority work
outside the home. One in
"NOT EASY BEING A FEMALE LEADER"
Since the austere Taliban government was toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan
forces in 2001, women in
Until March, she turned down invitations to appear on talk shows and at conferences, fearing for her safety.
She leads Wakht's coverage on domestic violence, the bartering of girls and women between families and the widespread but illegal practice of forced marriages. Though common across the country, such stories rarely make the mainstream media, despite funding for many outlets coming from Western donors who are keen to promote women's rights.
And even dedicated outlets struggle. Wakht's reporters have in the past been lured away by rivals with big cash offers, in what Nekzad sees as an attempt by more conservative factions of society to silence the agency. "We are also ignored," Nekzad said, adding that Wakht employees are often not invited to events, and must ask journalists from other outlets about what is taking place.