INDEPTH: A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
How radio is reaching out to Afghanistan's women
CBC News Online | February 19, 2004
Some missions by Canadians who are changing the world are huge in scope like the one here at Camp Julien. Others are much smaller. Our next story comes from that category, just one Canadian working a long way from home.
Jane Maklohone is reaching out in a country where words and thoughts have been muzzled. The former Canadian radio producer is teaching Afghan women how to use their country's airwaves to change the way many in their country see women.
Jane Maklohone (radio program creator):
So radio is an amazing tool in these kinds of countries. Everybody can listen to it. It's very democratic. It also doesn't cost much in your house to have a small transistor radio.
You just need a radio and a couple of batteries, and that means that women who are still leading very isolated lives, which many women are, who often don't have access to services, to schools, to health care, even to sharing their stories with other women because there's still a lot of fear about talking about problems and how they're dealing with poverty, with domestic violence, other issues that are still very taboo in this society. So we think if they can hear women on the radio talking, if they can hear women's stories, they'll see that women have that kind of credibility. They're on talking about their stories, and they'll understand that a lot of other women share the same kind of challenges they do.
Peter Mansbridge:
In a country rich with stories, the challenge is getting them on the air. Programs on topics like nutrition, education and the new constitution are produced every couple of weeks and then burned onto CDs and sent from the Kabul studio to radio stations across Afghanistan. There's also a plan to begin broadcasting daily. For the Canadian director of the program, the learning process is a two-way street.
Jane Maklohone:
Every time I go to Canada, people ask me so many questions about Afghan women. What is it like working with Afghan women? What are their lives like? What are they wearing? What are they doing? Are they at home? Are they out at work? I knew I was interested in Afghan women, but I have been overwhelmed by the response. And can you come and talk to my school classroom, can you do his, can you do an interview? Afghanistan is really far away from Canada and it's such a different place.
Peter Mansbridge:
Shoving a microphone in front of somebody is a particular art anywhere in the world. For a woman in Afghanistan, it can be particularly daunting in a society where many believe women should not be seen or heard in public. Jamilla Omar, one of the trainees, is at a wedding trying to get streeters on the upcoming elections.
Jane Maklohone:
It's a real struggle for Afghan women, and every day we try and remind ourselves, OK, we have to keep remembering what kind of struggles they're going through, because it's easy to forget because they're so strong.
Peter Mansbridge:
What I want to do is try to understand some of your experiences working as a woman journalist in Afghanistan. What are some of the difficulties you face?
Heba Tarzi (radio program trainee):
If security is good for journalist, if a journalist has the complete right to... especially a woman, to write for women's right, to write for justice, to write for anything, to have freedom of speech, then of course she can be a good female journalist. I was in medical faculty in university, but I changed my decision to be a journalist because I wanted to cure my people by writing reports, by just mention how women are able to do, how Islam has given women rights to do. So it's good to cure people by writing reports rather than... it's my idea, rather than being a doctor.
Jamilla Omar (radio program trainee):
But the most important things for the women is the security problem and some problems with their family because of the men in Afghanistan always take decision, and they tell to their lady and their sisters that you should do this work or you shouldn't do this work. So it means that they'll not have a lot of freedom to take their decision about their work.
Peter Mansbridge:
When all of you talk about the security issue, have any of you felt directly threatened because of your work as a journalist?
Heba Tarzi:
Not directly, but indirectly we face. Even, for example, if we see the harassment problem is common in Afghanistan, so a woman journalist cannot be walking on streets just interviewing... to feel free and walk through the streets and interview people or woman or men because whenever she is walking through the streets, a harassment issue will occur.
Peter Mansbridge:
Tell me what happens.
Heba Tarzi:
For example, men will say something. It's common in Afghanistan. Men will say something and, of course, if they say something, we feel bad.
Peter Mansbridge:
What do they say? What actually happens? If you're trying to do that, you're trying to interview somebody, somebody walks by, what do they say?
Heba Tarzi:
They're staring or they might say something. It's different things to say, I think. It's not one issue in harassment.
Peter Mansbridge:
I would like to ask you a couple of questions. The crossover from not just being a journalist, but your role as women in this country. Afghanistan has a new constitution. Women's rights have been enshrined in that constitution. Does that mean anything to you now?
Najia Naheefi (radio program trainee):
It's not the government to say that don't wear the burqa or wear the burqa or have the equal right with men or don't have the equal right with men. I think it is our responsibility to get our rights. Rights is not something to be submitted for us. It's something practically we should do that. We should have equal access to job, equal access to everything, equal rights to go home at 8:30 or 7:30 as our brothers do have.
Peter Mansbridge:
It's been great to talk to all of you. I wish you luck. Thank you.
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CUSO tracks volunteers from:
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Collectively, our organizations send or receive more than 3,000 volunteers each year and remain in touch with more than 60,000 returned volunteers. These figures include significant numbers of volunteers from the South, but by and large they represent Canadians so concerned about the disparity between life here and life in poorer countries that they are willing to give up weeks, months or even years of their time to improve the world. Through our network of members and volunteers, we reach into almost every community in Canada, coast to coast to coast. Ours is a real, concrete presence for Canada around the world, often the only Canadian presence outside of capitals, or even in some entire countries.
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