Aswatouna (Our Voices)
Aswatouna (Our Voices)
In 2019 Internews launched Aswatouna (Our Voices) a 3-year media program designed to help women participate equally as citizens and decision-makers in Erbil, Iraq. The program had a holistic approach to increasing women's voices in news and information through: providing training to journalists to produce gender-sensitive content and reporting that is relevant to the needs of women; building leadership opportunities for women in media and strengthening their ability to cope with gender-based violence online; and educating Iraqi women on their political and economic rights and participation.
Overview
The project piloted the Reflect Reality in Iraq to increase the extent to which women are sourced as subject matter experts in the news.
activities
• Gender analysis of Iraqi media and information landscape (published in 2020): A baseline that highlights the project realistic necessity on both strategic and implementation level.
• A national database of women experts featuring Iraqi women subject matter experts from different industries, such as economics, politics, conflict, and science was successfully built.
• Training of women experts in media and communications skills: To complement the database, a two-day intensive media training for select women experts helped ensure they feel comfortable and equipped to be interviewed by local and national media on and off-camera.
• Training journalists on gender sensitive reporting: A series of training were provided throughout the project to raise the quality of Iraqi journalists’ reporting on human rights as well as women’s and gender equality issues content in media.
Source: Internews, Our Voices Launch Event in Erbil, Iraq
Launch Event
Internews hosted a launch event to introduce the project and its goals to the media. Held in Erbil, Iraq, in June 2019, the event was a way to both highlight the importance of the gender gap in the media and to encourage broad participation of the media sector in future activities.
The TV, radio, newspaper and online news outlets that attended the event shared their experiences and challenges related to gender inequalities in the newsroom and the media, and highlighted key obstacles limiting women’s voice and participation.
Source: Internews, Our Voices Launch Event in Erbil, Iraq
Obstacles limiting women’s voice in Iraqi media:
Source: Internews, Our Voices Launch Event in Erbil, Iraq
Social norms that perpetuate the view that women’s appropriate place is at home.
A negative cultural perception of media as not suitable for families and women working in media, viewed as taboo or alarming.
Harassment, mainly sexual, directed at women journalists in the newsroom.
Lack of written policies or leadership mandate to advance women in management in the newsroom.
Lack of social insurance or journalism laws that help protect women’s right and ability to work.
Limited participation of women in political and economic sectors.
A patriarchal environment that provides more opportunity for men to grow and develop skills in the workplace.
Program interventions :
Increase public debate on women’s human rights and gender equality.
Expand access for women to information, which they need to make informed decisions and choices and to actively participate in democratic and peace-building processes.
Improve resilience of women against online and offline gender-based attacks.
Build the capacity of Iraqi journalists to produce high quality inclusive content focused on women’s rights and gender equality.
Produce content that challenges legal codes and social norms that still prioritize male opinions, and content that highlights issues that negatively affect Iraqi women and girls, such as gender-based violence, sexual assault, and laws limiting women’s independence.
Include more female writers and more women as sources.
Engage media outlet managers and government stakeholders in dialogue about harassment in newsrooms and women journalists’ safety in a broader sense.
Increase leadership opportunities for women in the Iraqi media and information space.
Create awareness raising programs for men and women on women’s political and economic rights.
Improve women’s access to high quality content in Iraqi media outlets, raising underrepresented women’s voices in Iraq.
Advocate for Iraqi women’s rights and their full social, political and economic inclusion and participation in democratic and peace building processes in Iraq.
Engage men in the above efforts to help elevate women’s voices.
Source: Source: Internews, Our Voices Launch Event in Erbil, Iraq
In addition to advancing gender equality and women's voices in Iraqi media, learnings developed through the Our Voices activities related to sourcing women experts will further inform the strategies presented in Reflect Reality.
Our Voices (2019-2021) was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
