Iqbal Tamimi - “Get-the-BLOG outta here.” Obstacles facing women journalists
By Iqbal Tamimi • May 13th, 2008 at 8:00 • Category: Internet and Communication, Opinions and Letters, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance
I have been asked many times why I switched to blogging after slaving for many years in journalism in the Middle East.
Many obstacles face women journalists in the Middle East, but on top of the list comes dedicated male efforts to exclude females from acquiring serious decision-making positions like that of Editor-in-Chief. Some still can’t swallow the idea of taking directions from a compass held by a woman.
Almost all decision-making posts are male dominated. The guardian figures keep squeezing female journalists in the kitchen page, reports related to children, health and education, excluding talented female colleagues from other positions where they would express their views and opinion such as politics and industry.
But bloggers have no unions to protect their rights. Many bloggers are looked at as rebellious outcasts, a group of self-hating people who are seeking revenge upon their States. That is the reason why many bloggers do not have the courage to reveal their real identities on line.
The most important reason behind hiding their real names is the fear of harassment from their governments, and the rejection that they would face in their male dominant society. Many still feel that women should be doing something ‘useful’ like raising kids, working as school teachers or nurses. Such views can be easily detected accompanied by a high percentage of transcription errors, grammatical mistakes and deceptive information that the people who steer the society fall into when documenting their aggressive views on some articles written by female journalists.
I myself had to knock down 3 blogs after years of hard work and after facing continuous personal attacks because of my views. The main subjects that attracted criticism were related to human rights, foreign policies in the Middle East and other categories I am not courageous enough yet to mention, but I would say it has something to do with tomatoes and how they are manipulated by the onions.
Mind you, to think about it, I don’t think I have lost much, since some unions are corrupt themselves. The funny thing is that some people in charge of the unions are themselves the disguised servants of the State, and at the same time they run the commercial media machine the unionist is supposed to complain about.
So, if you have to slave for free anyway, do it having in mind that you are your own boss. No one can wave your loaf of bread in your face to threaten you. And no Onion member can treat you as a ‘Tomato’.
During 8 years of my working experience as an assistant producer for news and current affairs programmes in a leading TV channel in the Middle East, the percentage of female journalists invited to comment on political issues was less than 4%. It was always the same women who kept appearing, even though there are a considerable number of professional female journalists who have excellent insight on what is going on. But such personalities were never approved to appear on such shows.
Inviting female analysts to comment depends heavily on personal preferences of the producer or the head of the department, not on professional grounds. I remember that my boss ordered that we stop inviting one of the most excellent journalists and political analysts living now in France - for no apparent reason. Sometimes women are considered as only females who like to appear on TV and thus should not be paid their appearance fees as their male counterparts are.
I am able to mention many excellent female analysts in the political field who have been deprived of participating for different reasons.
I have suggested a few names many times so that they could appear on a journalism programme, and my direct superior insisted not to. When I asked if it is because they are women, he said firmly, “Yes.”
There are excellent female journalists in the Middle East, but they are not given the chance to participate or contribute. Half of the society is silent against their will.
Iqbal Tamimi is a Palestinian journalist and poet from Hebron. She is currently the Press Freedom Desk Officer at Exiled Journalists' Network in the UK. She is also the creator of a vibrant and important activists' network Palestinian Mothers, open to all who share the vision of peace and justice, men and women alike.
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Thanks for the above and I am USA civilian journalist, which is a blogger who goes out seeking and reporting the truth because the USA PAID media will not.
I always viewed the personal attacks coming from hitting the nerves of truth and the people who attack want to keep the truth unknown.
I never considered using a pseudo-name and have a link to my site that tells me my USA Government not only hit on WAWA daily, they daily download pages and files.
Even if Big Brother were my only readers-it is well worth the time and effort, because I have hope that education will lead to compassion and compassion is the way to change.
“HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it.”-St. Augustine
Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory” and the soon to be released “BOOM BOOM BENNY STORY”
Producer “30 Minutes With Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Great article Iqbal! I just discovered this site, but I love it. So much info!
Ooops… I pressed the wrong key and I had not finished to comment… I live in Canada and I also blog because no mainstream media will publish anything that could harm the “Beast’s image.
In general, at work in any professions, women are paid less than men for the same job and same amount of hours. It seems to be the same pretty much everywhere!
I had to change IDs and blogs a few times since the Zionist evil entity came after me in 2004. It was pretty heavy… Last week, I had to delete three blogs again. What I do is that I keep the contents of my blog and just re-post it on a new blot under a new ID. I tell myself that what matters is the message and not the messenger…
There is no need to change your name and sites- do not allow people to post directly onto your blog.
Always maintain control of your posted and published material as the definitive source and when your articles/blogs are published by others, engage in dialogue with them there.
Here are two interesting ones from my encounters with the right wing Zionist USA cabal on the supposedly democratic free speech progressive blogs:
WAWA blog June 7, 2007: It Sure Smells Like a Right Wing Zionist Cabal at The Daily Kos
WAWA Blog October 24, 2007: Censoring Gravitas, Blowing Out Doors and Tearing Down Walls
Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory” and the soon to be released “BOOM BOOM BENNY STORY”
Producer “30 Minutes With Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Alsalamualaikum Mrs Iqbal,
I think that for womens to get their full rights, we need to have a real men in our communities.
There is no excuse for any man to not to give any of the women any part of their rights, also the women should fight peasefully untill they get those rights, and that is what you are doing.
A question:
- Why can’t we see womens’ newspapers or any other type of media, so that the full staff from top to bottom to be handled by them?!…
I think that by discussing the mentioned question, we may solve most of the problems you are eraising in this excellent article, but this question may lead to another topics and more complicated questions too.
Note that any of the suggestions I have included in this comment is to follow the Islamic Laws (Shariaa).
Thanks for your great efforts Mrs Iqbal.
to Mr. Saleh… tell me WHY????
The problem with the media in the Middle East is that we are looked upon by the West as if we are practicing Islam or abide by Sharia Law you are talking about, which is absolutely a load of nonsense.
Arab Women never slumped that low regarding their rights… ever.
Can you tell me why we are not allowed like Asma Bint Omais who used to be the representative of women to the prophet’s council? She used to go to his meetings and delegations , set down and speak on behalf of women’s rights, put down her requests, and say what she thinks. Can you tell me who is allowing us to do so freely now?
Can you tell me why almost 600 female Arab poets were dropped from the memory or any documentation since the era of the Andalosian female poet Walladah Bint Almostakfee?
Can you tell me why we do not have women like Aesha Bint Abu Baker who used to teach Shareea laws to men to follow at the prime of Islam, while the prophet was there and no one dared to say otherwise because he ordered them to take knowledge through her?
Does any prominent Muslim scholar in this age confess that he earned all his knowledge and education and studies of religious law through women like the Imam Alshafii did?
Unfortunately it is a political game to keep women oppressed. And religion is used wrongly to feed people rubbish information. None of the Arab states are following Shareea. They only try to hitch hike on Shareea when the matter suits them. This attitude harmed us Muslem women very much. We are thought of differently in the west, they do not know anything about us, and who we are and what we have achieved… and no thanks for Arab Media which is keeping us away.
Some women can lead a nation…while some dozen of men don’t know how to lead one goat to graze.
Re Saleh’s interesting comments (and Iqbal’s spirited and enlightening reply!) I can only add a bit of my own experience as having worked in publishing back in the 80s…and I don’t think things have changed: women are seen as consumers… they make the purchase choices and they are the goal of advertisers. Now, this explains why “Women’s magazines” are generally 75% advertising, occult or obvious.
For women to break out of that role as the consumer that is pinned upon them (when we actually ALL consume, but that is not our prime human role) they have to break into a different kind of editorial product, one that is slightly less advertising oriented, and this would be I suppose a paper that is not “specifically aimed at them”.
However, all societies have to deal with erogating power in an equitable way… It is a male dominated world we live in.
Mary…Allow me to tell you something about TV channels in the Arab world from my working experience. The majority of female presenters have nothing to do with media; their credentials are beautiful looks regardless of the stuffing of the skull. I dared them before, and I do that now again to present programmes upon their own knowledge, without the use of the earpiece, or the autocue… and without the help of the army of producers and assistant producers, feeding them every single information.
For the general public, they do see women working, so they think we have equality which is not the case. This is another kind of slavery; they are only interested in their looks, treated like dummies, thus depriving educated able journalists from both genders to be where they should be. Women are used; they are not assigned according to their skills and capabilities, and manipulated as a trap for who are fishing for ‘desirable’ looks to climb the viewing scale.
Have a look at the pictures of presenters and some writers in magazines. They are posing like cover girls; they are not setting down normally like everybody else. They know deep down themselves that they should sell something to attract a hungry eye. This is DEMEANING for women educated or not.
I know what you mean, but it’s not only in the Arab speaking world! It’s true all over the place. Although, there are indeed exceptions, the attractive women who are also fantastic journalists.
My own sister, who is an attractive woman, was a radio DJ for about 25 years. When they went “cable” (the radio show was also televised) they asked her to get a nice haircut and wear makeup. She thought that was a reasonable request, she was the image of the show and it should have something that is not sloppy. But, she noticed that while she was expected to have a different “outfit” each day, the men would come in five minutes before, some of them sloppy and unshaved and uncombed and wearing dirty or wrinkled clothes and she never saw anyone tell them to do something about it. She one day wore the same t-shirt her colleague wore a few days earlier (she had the same one, not his!) and they told her she couldn’t go on with a t-shirt for the Chicago Cubs! I mean, it was a total double standard. She knew it and said, look at the recording from a few days ago, this shirt didn’t get changed on him! They would find one reason or another to make things hard for her, and in the end, she got fed up and gave her resignation. They hired another woman in her place who had no experience, did not know how to handle calls in direct, did not know anything about radio, BUT, she was a real babe!… this is how it works everywhere. The men can look the pits, no one cares.
Mary… I am not against good looking people. Good looks are an added point but media in the first place is about handling information, and being able to influence people.
The double standard I was talking about is something else. Arab countries like to claim they are reserved and that they do care about traditions, and they claim that they like a modestly dressed lady. But I hope you have been reading Arabic news to find out how many female journalists have filed legal suits against their establishments. Do you have any idea why? Their jobs were terminated, or they were transferred to a position where no one will see them. They were discriminated against because they chosen to wear Hijab. A man can grow his beard but a woman can’t wear a Hijab. They would tell you there are a number of presenters wearing Hijab in Arab TV shows… I would say yes there are…but they wear it the traditional way, not the religious way…. three quarters of their hair is showing, their faces are full of make up in an exaggerated way. As a matter of fact they look more attractive with this kind of so called Hijab.
Good moorning Mrs. Iqbal and Mrs. Mary,
From your active and positive interaction and discussion regarding the very critical and important topics here, I would like to add the following conclusion:
- The man is playing a very important role in the issue, as the women can’t get their requirements and needs themselves and by force if it is needed. Thus, they -The women- need to seek for their rights by applying different and possible methods, among them is to forbid whoever from considering them as a sexual tool. On the other hand, they should do more effort on growing up better males’ generations.
You are very important for our world, and only the very… stupid and evil person who can’t understand this truth. So please don’t allow any of those evil people be happy with succeeding on hiding you and destroying us and themselves consequently.
Hope you a very pleasant time.
*After correcting some gramatical errors*
Good moorning Mrs. Iqbal and Mrs. Mary,
From your active and positive interaction and discussion regarding the very critical and important topics here, I would like to add the following conclusion:
- The man is playing a very important role in the women life, and the women are not able to get their requirements and needs alone and independantly, or by force if it is needed. Thus, they -The women- need to seek for their rights using different and more suitable ways. For example, they shouldn’t let any one to consider them as a sexual tools only. On the other hand, they should exert more efforts in growing up a better males’ generations.
Womens are very important for our world, but only the very… stupid and evil persons can’t understand this truth, and they will keep working against it. So please don’t allow any of those evil people to be happy with succeeding in hiding you or trying to do any bad to you and to destroy us and themselves consequently.
Hope you a very pleasant time.
For Iqbal Tamimi, and all others fighting such injustice,
Please continue your couragous battle - the acceptance and support of women leaders in journalism would be a symbolic victory for the improvement of our societies in all aspects.
BarakAllahu feekum