women journalists and wars! first draft//

Women journalists and wars!

Should women be allowed to go and cover up the war? Are the war zones safe for the journalists? Does the sexuality of the journalist matter? Why the journalists are the one who are molested and harassed?

Looking onto such questions, a new question arises; on what basis the journalists should be send to war areas? There are cases where women journalists did excellent work in covering the war for instance take Barkha Dutta. And then on the other hand there are cases where not only women but even men were abused and harassed. For instance “It is an expected networks response. In 2001, when a (male) Swedish journalist was killed in northern Afghanistan, several networks pulled out their reporters from the region." says long time war correspondent Anna Badkhen. So the thing is both the sexes are not secure when they go to cover some critical situation or areas.

To avoid these things, not to send the female journalists is not the solution. Though they are at risk but then also restricting them is just demotivating them and clearly stating the fact that women are much more vulnerable than men. Even if prohibiting the females, will that account for 100 per cent safety for men? Obviously not, because what matter is the condition and environment not the sex of the journalist

What could be done here is, to give women journalist the choice whether to go on the project or not, and when they are willing to go, they should mentally prepare themselves to such sexual harassment. They should feel confident enough to report and take actions against if they face any such thing. Not only for women but even for the male journalists they should also accept the fact that the palce is not safe and they could be molested or abused, so they should have courage to face whatever comes.

By

Muniza shariq