[cr-india] Afghanistan women's radio updates from Radio Zohra in Kunduz

[George Lessard]

From: "Bruce Girard" <bgirard at comunica.org>
To: cr-afghan at comunica.org
Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 21:49:17 -0300

Subject: [CR in Afghanistan] women's radio updates
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** Updates from Radio Zohra in Kunduz

Since the launching of Radio Zohra last March, 
the women working at the station have improved 
their radio skills remarkably and have started 
broadcasting six hours per day. Radio Zohra is 
now on air from 10 am until 4 pm every day of the 
week, a considerable development from just two 
hours a day when they began operations.

Their programming is comprised of in-house 
productions focusing on local concerns and 
featuring the voices of Kunduz women, as well as 
programs produced by the Tanin Network (a network 
of pre-packaged programs produced by various 
organizations including IMPACS Parwana Radio 
Production Unit) and music.

** A New Women's Radio Production Unit Flourishes in Logar

IMPACS, in collaboration with the independent 
community radio station in Logar, Radio Milli 
Paigham, established a women's radio production 
unit in this community, based in part on the 
experience of Parwana in Kabul.

Logar is known to be a relatively conservative, 
predominantly Pashtun, area where women generally 
lead lives of isolation. Reporters in Radio Milli 
Paigham were interested in having women's voices 
on the air and attracting more women listeners to 
the station. It has been very difficult for the 
male journalists to interview women because they 
usually don't have access to women's private 
spaces. At the same time, it was also difficult 
to hire women journalists to work at the radio 
station due to cultural restrictions women face 
and the location of the station itself: women 
simply were not allowed to go to that part of 
town.

The solution to this dilemma was a radio 
production unit for women separated from the male 
environment and the radio station. This is the 
model that IMPACS used in Kabul with excellent 
results. A small studio was set up in a private 
home and in an accessible location, so women have 
their own space to produce their programs. A 
couple of computers and some tape recorders did 
the trick. Logar women are now producing reports 
and programs that are saved to computer disks and 
later broadcast in Radio Milli Paigham.

The initial training workshop conducted in Logar 
brought unexpected surprises. Since most women 
were not allowed to work outside of home and 
strong restrictions apply to speaking and 
appearing in public, IMPACS expected only a few 
number of women would participate. However, more 
than 25 women attended the first day of training 
and even more showed up the following days.

Four women were selected from this group to be 
the founding members of the Logar Women's Radio 
Production Unit. In the two months following the 
initial training, the women produced seventeen 
radio programs. And after the second training 
session conducted by IMPACS, the women from Logar 
learned quickly advanced radio techniques, 
interviewing and writing skills, as well as basic 
computer editing. They completed four complex 
radio pieces that will be broadcast on the 
community radio.

Since the production and broadcast of women's 
programs on the station, Radio Milli Paigham has 
received dozens of letter from listeners who want 
to hear more women's voices on the radio and who 
encourage the production of more women's programs 
on health, education, voter registration among 
other themes.

IMPACS undertook the establishment of this 
women's production unit as a pilot project that, 
if successful, could be extended to other 
independent radio stations where women do not yet 
have a strong role, particularly in communities 
where women's lives are more restricted. With 
this model, women are able to raise their voices 
in their own communities and women listeners have 
another reason to turn on their radios and learn 
about what's going on around them.




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Via / By / Excerpted / From / Tip from / Thanks to:

>From eCatalyst, published monthly by IMPACS: the Institute for
Media, Policy and Civil Society, 207 West Hastings, Suite 910, Vancouver,
CANADA, V6B 1H7, phone/ 1.877.232.0122, fax/ 1.604.682.4353, email/
centre at impacs.org, web/ http://www.impacs.org.  We welcome your comments
and contributions to eCatalyst.

  --
Bruce Girard        -        <http://comunica.org/> www.comunica.org
Montevideo, Uruguay - Tel: +598 2 908.18.25
Fax +31 84 882.6517 or +1 309 210.4135
<http://www.skype.com/>Skype  - bgirard

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