Three female journalists in the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program discussed the extent of civil unrest in their overseas journalistic careers on Monday.
The Must See Mondays panel at the Walter Cronkite School consisted of Derya Kaya from Turkey and Hina Ali and Javaria Tareen from Pakistan. The women discussed the hardships of pursuing their journalistic careers in regions where reporters are persecuted and sometimes killed as a result of their reporting.
The panel began with Kaya, a social entrepreneur and activist who said she wants to promote democracy within her country.
Kaya said that while she knows a key concept of journalism is maintaining a political balance, she still is supportive of the protest movements occurring in Turkey. She said the “Red Woman” became a symbol of revolt within the movements after an image of a woman in a red dress being sprayed with tear gas at a protest spread across social media and international publications.
Censorship by the government and large businesses is a major issue in Turkey, Kaya said.
“You can smell the tear gas, but on TV you saw nothing,” Kaya said.
Ali, a producer for Pakistan’s first and only Oscar-winning production company Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Films, said being a journalist in Pakistan is dangerous.
“It’s very normal if you wear a (bulletproof) vest,” Ali said.
Ali’s choices as a journalist have her facing threats every day from the Pakistan government, military and sometimes even the citizens, she said. During one of her documentaries, she described cases where women had been physically abused by their husbands.
“Just imagine losing your face, and your children don’t recognize you. And it’s the husband who threw acid on you,” Ali said. “So where do you go?”
Ali said the women in Pakistan are perceived as second-rate human beings in comparison to men. As a woman, she said she felt it was her duty to shed light on this reality.
Tareen reports for the Balochistan Times located in a province in Pakistan that is rich in resources but can be deadly for journalists. There are 11 districts within Balochistan that prohibit media coverage, and international journalists are forbidden to cross these borders.
Tareen has been affected by office bombings and the deaths of fellow journalists. A total of 34 journalists were killed in Balochistan alone, Tareen said.
Tareen said she chose to become a journalist because she wanted to change society’s views. Women need a voice, she said, and others might not provide that perspective.
“(As journalists), we never forget that our first responsibility is to report. We don’t care if we die,” Tareen said. “We give our life for this profession.”
Contact the reporter at cmroney@asu.edu
