HAIDER
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- May 21, 2006
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(Link has radio clip)
PESHAWAR: In a small recording studio in Peshawar, Asma rushes around with a minidisc recorder. She has to finish editing a news bulletin and make it back to her home in Nowshera before it gets dark. If I dont get the bulletin done in time for this evenings show, the station wont let me continue as a radio journalist, she says. But if I dont get home on time, then my parents wont let me continue working either.
Asma is one of 15 reporters for Radio Khyber, a Jamrud-based FM radio station, and one of the few legal media outlets in Pakistans tribal belt. The station, which is supported by the Fata Secretariat, aims to counter the extremist, pro-jihad and anti-West programming that is typical of dozens of illegal radio stations run by hard-line clerics throughout the tribal agencies.
The stations programming is notable listeners enjoy a mix of infotainment shows, call-in talk shows, development-oriented programmes that touch on social taboos and health care, and music, particularly hits in Pashto by Fata-based artists. Broadcasting for a total of six hours a day three hours in the morning, and then again in the evening the station also airs religious programming, but sermons or religious discussions are kept short and are sandwiched between music shows and humorous chat shows.
What is particularly remarkable about Radio Khyber, though, is that it employs three women as radio journalists. Given that women in the tribal belt do not have as many job opportunities as their counterparts in settled areas or major cities, the option to work for Radio Khyber is invaluable. But the symbolic value of these womens participation in the station is even more important.
According to Aurangzaib Khan, the manager of Media Development at Internews Pakistan a non-profit organisation that trains radio journalists it is highly unusual to have womens voices on the airwaves in Fata. People in the tribal areas dont like it if their women call in to radio shows. They think it is shameful if their voices are broadcast on air because the radio goes to the public, adds Tayyab, Radio Khybers news editor. In fact, when women call the station to request songs or ask questions during a talk show, their queries are broadcast on air under mens names.
In this context, Asma and her female colleagues determination to be radio journalists is admirable. But it also means that they have had to defy their families to pursue the career of their choice. For example, Kulsoom, a radio journalist from Quetta who is temporarily based in Peshawar to work with Radio Khyber, says that her parents and brother strongly disapprove of strange men hearing her voice on air. But I wanted to do something unique, she says. Im the first Pathan girl from Balochistan who has come into the media.
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Women in Fata find a voice
PESHAWAR: In a small recording studio in Peshawar, Asma rushes around with a minidisc recorder. She has to finish editing a news bulletin and make it back to her home in Nowshera before it gets dark. If I dont get the bulletin done in time for this evenings show, the station wont let me continue as a radio journalist, she says. But if I dont get home on time, then my parents wont let me continue working either.
Asma is one of 15 reporters for Radio Khyber, a Jamrud-based FM radio station, and one of the few legal media outlets in Pakistans tribal belt. The station, which is supported by the Fata Secretariat, aims to counter the extremist, pro-jihad and anti-West programming that is typical of dozens of illegal radio stations run by hard-line clerics throughout the tribal agencies.
The stations programming is notable listeners enjoy a mix of infotainment shows, call-in talk shows, development-oriented programmes that touch on social taboos and health care, and music, particularly hits in Pashto by Fata-based artists. Broadcasting for a total of six hours a day three hours in the morning, and then again in the evening the station also airs religious programming, but sermons or religious discussions are kept short and are sandwiched between music shows and humorous chat shows.
What is particularly remarkable about Radio Khyber, though, is that it employs three women as radio journalists. Given that women in the tribal belt do not have as many job opportunities as their counterparts in settled areas or major cities, the option to work for Radio Khyber is invaluable. But the symbolic value of these womens participation in the station is even more important.
According to Aurangzaib Khan, the manager of Media Development at Internews Pakistan a non-profit organisation that trains radio journalists it is highly unusual to have womens voices on the airwaves in Fata. People in the tribal areas dont like it if their women call in to radio shows. They think it is shameful if their voices are broadcast on air because the radio goes to the public, adds Tayyab, Radio Khybers news editor. In fact, when women call the station to request songs or ask questions during a talk show, their queries are broadcast on air under mens names.
In this context, Asma and her female colleagues determination to be radio journalists is admirable. But it also means that they have had to defy their families to pursue the career of their choice. For example, Kulsoom, a radio journalist from Quetta who is temporarily based in Peshawar to work with Radio Khyber, says that her parents and brother strongly disapprove of strange men hearing her voice on air. But I wanted to do something unique, she says. Im the first Pathan girl from Balochistan who has come into the media.
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Women in Fata find a voice
