“Break the Silence! MENA Media Platforms Negate Women’s Narratives”

The titles event was held in cooperation by women representing Middle Eastern and African countries like Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, etc.

The women who spoke in this event were passionate and represented past and current affiliations with advocacy, media of journalism, and news reporting. They described how there are always dedicated sections in print media for women, but the material is only limited to beauty, cooking fir household related subjects. There is no space that is dedicated for women’s issues like harassment, domestic violence or women’s rights. Recently women who are well known in the media circles have stepped forward and initiated their own television shows as anchors. These shows portray talk about problems faced by women in Middle East and Africa regions. Recently a young girl dies while female genital mutilation was performed, and this was given as a front-page news. Just getting this story to the front helped in raising awareness about the issue of female genital mutilation in Africa.

The speakers stressed that it is important for media to cross all boundaries. While there is a positive change in media today about awareness on women’s issue, but women are still represented as a commodity by the media. It is reproducing women as victims rather than survivor, making the position of woman as inferior.

In the MENA region, social media mostly back lashes against feminism and women’s rights. Feminists are attacked, they are called corrupt, and all the blame is placed on the victim of the attack.

Media has discourses images to the young generation and emphasized that violence against women is okay. Media is way behind development on women’s rights, and there is no support in this area by the government. In 2005 and 2014 again, advocates convinced the national convention in Morocco to sign a bill about improving women’s images in the media but to-date no plan has been adopted by the government. Apparently, the MENA region has a long way to go in the area of women’s image created and discoursed by the media.

Break the Silence!

The CSW parallel event- Break the Silence! MENA Media Platforms Negate Women’s Narratives was sponsored by Nazra for Feminist Studies and co-sponsored by The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in the Middle East and North Africa. This session focused on the violence and stereotypes perpetrated about women in the media in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with a focus on North Africa. The panel consisted of three women who are involved in the media in North Africa- one from Morocco and two from Egypt. One consensus among all panelists was that to properly address the issue of gender-based violence in media, the most important question to answer is: “Are there female leaders in media?” To this question, all panelists answered NO. The panel members stated that it is difficult to get real issues concerning women into the media outlets because of a lack of female representation in leadership positions.

In Egypt, the only sections of the newspapers that are dedicated for women are for fashion, beauty, motherhood and cooking which often perpetuates untrue stereotypes and when real issues are addressed, it is called a corruption of the women’s section of the newspaper. This serves as a battle for the Women Human Rights defenders as they are not only up against the media and a patriarchal society but also against private companies who have a vested interest in continually perpetuating these demeaning stereotypes of women in order to keep up their sales of cosmetic, fashion and beauty products. In Morocco, women are championed as being equal and included but are portrayed in the media as commodity which is a paradoxical situation that reinforced patriarchy among the younger generation and shifts the focus away from gender based violence.

However a battle has been won with the aid of local, regional and international feminist activists who provide journalists with the data needed to compel editors-in-chief to publish these important issues as there are facts and figures to back up the need for this information. In Egypt, Ms. Raneem has taken it upon herself to create a safe space for Egyptian women, especially rural women who experience worse forms of violence to tell their stories from a different perspective than that of the traditional media outlets who blame the victims of sexual terrorism. She created this space because as a professional in the media, she had experienced firsthand how women were portrayed as commodity, the lack of female leadership in media and the portrayal of sexual violence in the media. She uses alternative media outlets to ensure that the voices of women are heard with the hope that these efforts in the media will serve as a tool to change the culture.

Underground Movement to Destabilize Human Trafficking

Operation Big Sister

The 60^th meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women highlights NGOs and civil society’s involvement in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The sessions showcased a variety of viewpoints and the work that is being done towards eradicating major issues we still face today while addressing them within the context of the SDGs.

The interactive panel discussion entitled What Will It Take to End Human Trafficking? The Role Media Plays & A Rarely Heard Voice for the Trafficker’s Perspective offered a unique perspective on the impact media has on perpetuating gender inequality through sexual oppression, human trafficking, and child marriage, and ways to help reverse the impact by utilizing media to make a difference.

An empowering project, led by session moderator and film producer Sheva Carr and co-producer Fred Fauchs, offers an innovative grassroots approach that opens the door for media coverage, in the form of a film and documentary putting a “spotlight” on trafficking in efforts to help stop it worldwide.

The story of the underground movement called “Stóra systir” (Big sister) begins with women in Iceland organizing themselves and taking on the issue of human trafficking. Icelandic women fought for 10 years to decriminalize women and criminalize the traffickers. In 2009, a law was put in place, but the argument was always the same when it came to implementation, “It’s the oldest profession in the world, it will not easily change”. The woman decided that if normal vectors of change do not want to budge, then they needed to do something else. They took out ads as sex workers, and when “johns” called, the voice on the other end responded with “This is your big sister watching you”. Soon this underground movement of women, and even men, responding to calls, taking down names, phone numbers, and sending “johns” to the home addresses of police officials became widely known. Gaining major attention, this story of heroic, creative and forward thinking women, helped bring this topic to the forefront, which led to the idea of making it a feature film, accompanying it with a documentary and an educational curriculum.

We are at a point in human history where technology, media, in particular, takes on a very important role in influencing people’s perceptions and educating many on issues that they either know little of or were not aware existed. The message highlighted in this session is that media and technology can and should be utilized as powerful tools that help destabilize the sex industry. These types of projects, movies, and educational platforms can inspire and empower millions of people.

The Truths of the Human Trafficking Industry

The reality of human trafficking? 

• USA is the #1 destination for Americans who seek to have sex with children
• There are over 636,000 registered sex offenders in the USA
• Child marriage is legal in 20 countries, and 15 million girls will be sold as brides before they are 18
• Trafficking is a $99 billion industry
• The sexual exploitation of children is driven by the Internet
• In the Bolivian context, human trafficking has increased 900% in the past nine years

This is a small list of the harsh truths of human trafficking shared at one of the first panel sessions of the 60th NGO Commission on the Status of Women (NGO CSW) Forum on March 15, 2016. The panel was titled “What Will It Take to END Human Trafficking? The Role Media Plays & A Rarely Heard Voice from the Trafficker’s Perspective,” sponsored by Pathways to Peace, The Fyera Foundation, and Operation Big Sister, as well as panelists from The Nest Foundation, Media Impact, and GWEN.

“Where drugs are being sold, children are being sold,” one of the panelists remarked. This reality is incomprehensible, yet it exists. Another panelist reflected on her position in the world, growing up in the United States, middle class, well and highly educated. In her experience, she was under the impression that we, here in the USA, have achieved almost full gender equality. Her first experience at the NGO CSW Forum three years ago changed her understanding. As it very well did many conference participants attending the panel. It brought her here, three years later, leading NGOs and advocating for the end of human trafficking. 

Recognizing the role media has to play in perpetuating the human trafficking industry across the world, the panelists urged us, as members of civil society, to be the “hands and feet of policy makers,” and transform the media we create. The only way to change the status of women, it was stated, is to change the perceptions of boys and men. 

Upon finishing this blog, Google image search “women in advertising.” Reflect on what populates on your browser.