Should or should not women journalists be sent to war and conflict zones, has been a topic of great interest in the present times. That they often are molested and beaten up was always known, but this fact was always kept hush hush and under wraps. That was until CBS correspondent Lara Logan came out about her sexual assault while reporting from Tahrir Square in Cairo during February 2012. By speaking openly about it, she began a new revolution to increase the safety of women reporters in conflict hit areas.
She said and I quote, “I want the world to know that I am not ashamed of what happened to me. I want everyone to know I was not simply attacked – I was sexually assaulted. This was, from the very first moment, about me as a woman. But ultimately, I was just a tool. This was about something bigger than all of us – it was about what we do as journalists. That ancient tactic of terrifying people into submission or silence.”
This ancient tactic did not work this time. And this instance has become a painful reminder of what has been happening over years and never spoken about. Like a taboo.
Women journalists who have reported from war stricken areas over the years have their own stories to tell. Mother of four, Sky New’s correspondent Alex Crawford became quite a sensation after riding into Tripoli in a rebel pickup truck and broadcasting live news using a cigarette lighter socket to power her satellite. Wearing a tin hat amidst celebratory gunfire, she was the first to report from Gadaffi’s compound in Tripoli after his death. She became a trending topic on Twitter for the same.
Award winning Irish reporter from the Guardian, Maggie O’Kane, can tell a tale or two. Along with the tools of her trade, her computer and satellite dish, which were cleverly hidden under Marlboros and underwear, to escape detection as she attempted to merge with the people in Bosnia during the Balkan war, she also carried something else. This something else was a pretty flowered dress. A touch of feminity can go a long way in wars. If she wore khakis and was walking down a road, a sniper wouldn’t think two seconds before shooting her. But if she had the dress on, he would pause for a few seconds and probably check her out. The army personnel are stereotypical macho men who try their best to show off. A commander would see her as a plaything and the more she batted her eyelashes and looked impressed, the more information she was likely to get. His men would think of her as ‘his chick’ and the fact that she was using sex to get information would be a given fact.
Tina Susman, the LA Times when rescued after being held captive in Somalia for three weeks, startled her rescuers by telling them that she hadn’t been raped. To them, the fact that a female reporter kept hostage for so long hadn’t been raped was hard to believe.
Another topic of debate which always comes up is that do men and women write differently in war zones? It is assumed that women generally go into the human aspect of things while men tend to suppress their feelings. Men write about the hard, gruesome stuff, while women tend to write about the feelings of the people and try to build an emotional connect with them. Women in war torn areas are more likely to talk to reporters of the same sex rather than opposite one, as they are more comfortable with them and in some cases, religious ethics come into play where women aren’t allowed to talk to Gaer Mehraam (Unrelated men). Though there are exceptions like Roy Gutman, who won a Pulitzer for his humanitarian coverage of the Balkan war, most people would argue that men and women do tend to approach war differently. So justifies Janine di Giovanni of London's Sunday Times, that many of her male colleagues get a high talking about 62mm mortars, AK-47’s and Kalashnikovs, rather than how war affects the place and the people.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour has reported from many of the world's battle zones and her dark blue flak jacket has become familiar to American television viewers. "Christiane has a real flair for reporting emotional impact and emotional drama, but that's not to say a man couldn't do it," says Eason Jordan, senior vice president of international news at CNN. "It's too broad a generalization to say that women report one way and men another. But I would say that particularly from the Balkan region, women certainly have done exceptional work on reporting the human drama."
Even our own Barkha Dutt from NDTV went to Ladakh during the peak of the Kargil war, when few dared to do so.
Women have been branded just as wives, mothers and girlfriends for far too long. Just the fact that they can put it all on the line and go to war stricken areas to do their job breaks the stereotype. In doing so, they move away from their traditional roles and become equal to their male colleagues. Also the stereotype that women need special treatment, better food and facilities is diminishing.
When a woman is raped or molested anywhere, the first thing which is questioned is her clothes. In the case of most journalists, it is not so as they dress according to the social climate of a place. So it is sickening to hear some voices saying that Miss. Logan was assaulted just because she is pretty. If that is the attitude of the people, tomorrow they will say that she was raped ‘because she is a woman’.
The fact of the matter remains that even though men are prone to sexual attacks as well, women seem to be more vulnerable due to their branding of the ‘fairer sex’.
As Susman says, “Rather than questioning the wisdom of sending women into potential perilous duty or worrying for their safety, editors and news organizations should focus on preparing women (and men) for the threat of sexual violence and helping them avoid it.” says Susman. “I’ve rarely heard anyone say of men, “They’re too macho and always run toward the action, so maybe we shouldn’t send guys into war zones.’’
Where there is a Lara Logan, there was also a Daniel Pearl. Thus the International News Safety Institute (INSI) has been set up for the safety of both men and women who so bravely act as message bearers to us and the proceeds from the sale of the book (No Woman’s Land) will go towards it.
Every war reporter has their own style, whether man or woman. To rob them of their basic privilege of expressing themselves based on gender is a sheer offence to the human society. The INSI is a new hope for women reporters all over the world. And we hope that one day, they too will share their stories with us as their colleagues have done in ‘No Woman’s Land’ and help a new generation of women journalists to stay safe while bringing home the news.
http://www.stylist.co.uk/people/women-on-the-front-line#image-rotator-1
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=1513
http://themediaonline.co.za/2012/08/on-the-frontline-with-female-reporters/
http://www.unwomen.org/2012/05/no-womans-land-a-new-book-recalls-the-frontline-experiences-of-female-reporters/
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