Al-Jazeera Told of Women Reporters' Challenges

IWPR editor Daniella Peled appeared on al-Jazeera’s Listening Post programme to discuss the dangers confronting female reporters in the field.

The programme, aired in late March, explored issues around the safety of female journalists in conflict zones, following the assault on CBS correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo's Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution.

The attack has led to a debate over the challenges faced by women in the media and the little-discussed risk of sexual assault in the field.

Peled, an IWPR editor based in London, told Listening Post, “The surprising thing about the Lara Logan case is that there seemed to be an awful lot of criticism that she was actually there, like she had committed some crime by being young and blonde in a zone where there might be conflict.”

Acknowledging the particular challenges women need to deal with in these kinds of situations, she added, “By its very nature a conflict zone is a kind of masculine, militaristic environment. You also face risks as you are often physically weaker and it is very much easier to be simply pushed around, to be physically moved, to be intimidated.”

Discussing IWPR’s approach to teaching women journalists, she noted that they received security training together with their male counterparts, while being made aware of particular precautions they should take.

“We send a lot of female media professionals – not just journalists, but also activists – to hostile environment training courses alongside their male colleagues, which gives you an awareness of the risks you might face in such an environment,” she said.

“Now for women there will be some cultural things you need to observe, for instance, whether you should wear a headscarf, not to wear very brightly coloured clothes, not to wear jewellery, not to wear high heels, to ensure that you can always run away.”

But Peled emphasised the importance of women reporters playing a full and active role in reporting from conflict and post-conflict zones, noting that in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, cultural restrictions gave female journalists an advantage when it came to covering particular stories.

“In certain places, you do get more access – because you are a woman – to tell stories about families, about women, which male reporters simply don’t,” she said.

Following the Logan case, Peled concluded that “there seems to be a debate about whether women should actually be sent to these places. Now that’s not what the debate [should] be about...we should look at ways we can minimise this risk. And women shouldn’t be afraid of speaking out.”