“A message to the girl and boy child! Have ambition, know your goals, and don’t let anyone pressure you!”

The words of Elizabeth (left). Elizabeth and Rehema are friends who had their dreams snatched away from them after they got excluded from their respective schools because of getting pregnant.

“My dad did not even want to talk to me after he found out and our relationship completely broke down,” Rehama says. She blames bad company and peer pressure for influencing her decisions.

However, Elizabeth and Rehema now have reason to smile, after a change in the laws here have allowed teenage mothers to return to school. Rehema is now reunited with her parents and hopes to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. Elizabeth hopes to pursue a career in arts and crafts.

Meet Aisha or as she is popularly known ‘Hijab DJ’ - the first woman DJ in Zanzibar. She fought stigma from her community and even her own family to become one of the most popular DJs in Zanzibar.

“The community needs to understand that the world is changing. People have different dreams, not everyone is going to be a doctor or a teacher. Some DJs will be born, some musicians will be born…”

“How can a woman change a tyre?”

This is one of the many statements that have been thrown at Amina. She doesn’t let it affect her.

“If you tell yourself you can’t do it, then that’s how it will play out. If you go in with confidence, then others will automatically respect you.”

Amina is a mechanic in Mtwara. It was her dream to become a mechanic ever since she was a child - a dream she has since fulfilled.

 

Judy is a tour guide based in Moshi, Kilimanjaro. In a short space of time, she has moved from being a porter to being a tour guide for clients looking to scale Mount Kilimanjaro.

Despite her success, some of her colleagues are still hesitant to fully accept her. Her goals remain clear: continue working hard, be the boss of her life and eventually open her own tourism company.

“Just because I’m a girl, it doesn’t mean I have to work in a bar as a waitress or do household chores as others may expect. I am young and I have a thirst for success!”

Want to know more about these stories? Check out the full interviews on Niambie Tanzania’s social media platforms.

Niambie’s work and Tanzania’s story is still ongoing, but we hope that with each story we tell and with each voice we give a platform, we are building a more equal Tanzania. Be sure to follow the SBCC Summit in Marrakech this December as we look to tell Niambie’s story to the world!

You can also see my Instagram takeover of the – it includes some male champions striving for gender equality too.

Thanks for reading.

UN figures indicate that over 90% of girls and women in Somalia have been subject to female genital mutilation (FGM). Discussions over FGM remain a taboo in many places in Somalia and the devastating health ramifications – including pain, bleeding, permanent disability, trauma and even death - remain prevalent.

The most commonly cited reasons for carrying out this harmful practice include cultural norms related to social acceptance, religious misconception related to cleanliness – including the belief that those who have not been cut are unclean or unworthy, and the preservation of virginity before marriage, while some believe that it is a rite of passage to adulthood.

Whatever the reasons given, FGM is a physical assault conducted on girls too young to consent, and a violation of their rights.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action seeks to support people in understanding their rights. The level of FGM we are witnessing in Somalia is significantly alarming and I believe needs to be addressed from the grassroots to national level.

With support from German aid agency GIZ, we are producing radio magazine programmes broadcasting in all member states of Somalia through our local partner stations, to share trusted information about the harm caused by FGM and share the perspectives of health experts, religious leaders and survivors.

These ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action-produced programmes include voices from all member states of Somalia, and all Somali dialects including ‘the Mai’, which is spoken in the South West state of Somalia. This helps builds a sense of belonging for all Somalis in relation to the programme, which is rebroadcast by seven local radio partner stations across the federal republic of Somalia and Somaliland.

The truth about FGM

The World Health Organization has created four medical classifications of FGM; level 3 is the most extreme and is also most prevalent in Somalia and Somaliland.

All classifications of FGM can cause complications at childbirth and increases risk of newborn death; other complications include fistula, bleeding, chronic pelvic infections, urinary problems and infections. FGM is often carried out under unsanitary and primitive conditions without anaesthetic, which causes severe pain, bleeding and swelling that may prevent passing urine and faeces. 

We met Farhiya Abdi Ali when she featured on our weekly radio programme, Tusmada Nolosha (Lifeline). She described going through the painful FGM process:

"I am one of the many girls [who] encountered a lot of problems such as blockage of menstruation. I was taken to hospital and the only option was to open me by removing the stitches. If not opened [it] could have caused a bigger problem."

It is often believed that FGM can prevent girls from becoming pregnant. We featured Mrs Foosia Muse, a midwife at Hargiesa group hospital, in our social media clips about FGM, who clarified this is not the case.

"They believe that if the girl is stitched, she cannot be touched. But they are touched and some are brought to us stitched and pregnant. The small passage that you make for the girl for urination is the same passage that the baby enters the womb."

Laws and religious perspectives

In our formative research, we also found that some mothers believed that FGM is a religious act, that a family that does not practice FGM will face stigma and the girl will be considered to be a non-Muslim.

"FGM is a huge part of the religion because it an act of worship, and a family that doesn't perform FGM on their daughters will be discriminated within the community," said a mother in Garowe, whose daughter has undergone FGM.

To help counter this, in Somaliland, the government introduced a fatwa which bans the practice of female genital mutilation in the country and vowed to punish perpetrators. The fatwa, issued by the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs, pledges punishment for those who carry out FGM, and asks for compensation for FGM victims.

However, it does not clarify whether this compensation will be paid by the government or by those who violate the ban, and appears to be restricted to only the most extreme form of the practice.

This fatwa is so far only in writing. The practice of FGM has not stopped and as yet, there are no reports of fines, punishments or compensation given.

But Islamic clergy are divided on zero tolerance of FGM. Although they all agree that it is unreligious, most of them still support the ‘Sunna’, or Level 1 FGM practice; some see that FGM is part of religion, in the same way that prayer is.

Yet the Islamic religion prohibits anything that is harmful to people’s lives, and views differ among religious leaders. When we spoke with Sheikh Abdikadir Deria Adan on our programme, he said:

"It is not compulsory, as indicated in the Prophet’s teaching; nowhere have the wives of the Prophet spoken of or practiced FGM."

We realised that to reach zero tolerance for FGM, raising awareness on the harm caused by the practice was imperative. We also understood that religious leaders with academic, scientific and medical knowledge would be more likely to understand and help convey the risks.

Killing one to save thousands

In our radio drama, we created two characters who were sisters - Qamar and Amina - who hold contrasting views on FGM. In the storyline both Qamar and Amina have daughters who are of age for the practice. Qamar was preparing her two daughters for FGM, and she tried to convince her sister to bring her daughter for the procedure, too.

Amina was hesitant and seeks advice from her friend, a qualified nurse. The two of them tried hard to stop Qamar, who believed in the traditional myths, but their efforts failed. Qamar believed that as FGM was conducted on her great grandmother, her grandmother, her mother and herself, there was no way she was going to break the cultural chain.

Qamar went ahead and had FGM performed on her two daughters. As the drama progresses, listeners hear how the procedure on one of her daughters, Yasmin, goes wrong and they were unable to stop the bleeding. The women take Yasmin to hospital in an effort to save her life, but she sadly dies.

We know that drama has great power to help address cultural sensitivities and taboo topics like this by building empathy with characters based on real-life examples. Our research showed that stories and characters can help listeners to reflect on their own lives in a less direct way, and challenge entrenched gender norms.

"The death of the girl in the drama made me sad… this ending of the story can also be a lesson to mothers who are thinking of making their daughters undergo FGM," a young woman in Kismayo, who herself has undergone FGM, told us.

We hope that the death of Yasmin’s character in our radio drama will help save the lives of thousands of Somali girls.

 

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Mohammed Gaas is Deputy Country Director for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action Somalia

Learn more about our work in Somalia here.

Back then, they said little by little, their attempts to protect girls had become known. Chowa described how initially they didn’t get told the details, “we just heard there was a marriage happening nearby and then we tried to get the information – was it a child marriage or not? After, stopping a few child marriages in this way people from our area got to know us.”

We asked why they do it… their reply?

"Someone must do it"

“If, we only think about ourselves then there is no point… many people don’t do anything because their family is not supporting them, or they have social bindings. But if all of us sit by then society will never change.” Tabassum said that from the bottom of their hearts they wanted to help stop child marriage and eve teasing.

By 2019, the Grasshoppers had stopped over 50 child marriages.

Part 2: Grassroots, keep going, keep growing

Four years have passed, and I decided to find out what had happened since then. Chowa is now on her way to university but her work with Ghashforing has never stopped. More teenagers have joined the team and now Chowa diligently guides the new girls.

In Bangladesh, over 50% of girls are married before they turn 18.

Chowa told me about a particularly memorable child marriage they helped prevent.

They had learned that a senior girl from their school was being forced into an early marriage. Due to financial difficulties, the girl's family was unwilling to continue her education, and had decided to marry her off. But the girl’s family denied they were arranging her marriage.

First, Chowa and her friends went to the headmaster of their school and asked if the school could pay the expenses for the girl to continue her studies. Then they entered the girl’s house, disguised as wedding guests!

They sought out the bride who confirmed the wedding had been arranged against her will. The Grasshopper team then met the bride’s parents and explained the negative impacts of early marriage and told them that the school would pay for the girl's education. It was a tense, nerve-wracking but momentous moment when the family agreed to put a stop to the wedding.

Chowa said that moment shines brightly in her memory.

Amplifying the voices of women and girls

When the Grasshopper girls appeared on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s Hello Check! Chowa found that many people in all corners of the country, and even outside the country, heard about the work of Ghashforing and it helped other girls be more aware of the issues.

"Many are showing courage and initiative… maybe the situation of early marriage would have changed only in this area. However, because of this publicity, now there is an opportunity for everyone to be aware and change the situation. Of course, you must continue to study if you want to get rid of the injustice, torture and dowry"

She explained that it’s a societal effort. Girls need the help of someone they can trust – a schoolteacher or an older sibling - and there is a government helpline for the prevention of early marriage. She added that the relationship between a girl and her parents needs to be handled with care – and reflected on another child marriage they stopped.

They found out from the girl’s friend in their school, that an early marriage was taking place against her will. But Chowa described how the family will often deny that there are plans for a child marriage.

On this occasion, they set up a vigil near the family home and – as suspected - the marriage started happening one evening. Ghashforing stopped that marriage with the help of Nandail's Teenage Women Football Team! The good news is that the girl then returned to school and is continuing her studies - which Chowa describes as the most satisfying part of their work.

Spreading the word and wings

Times are changing, early marriage used to be publicly celebrated, but this happens much less now – and Chowa thinks this is down to the success of the Grasshoppers – shared across Bangladesh by ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s Hello Check!.

Teenage girls in Bangladesh face many pressures as they grow up. Many of them cannot study because of financial problems. Many families think that daughters are a burden - that they will get married and leave for another house, so there’s no point spending money on their education. If we can change this kind of thinking, teenagers will grow up wonderfully.

When we asked Chowa about her future, she said she wants to study law at university. She wants to establish justice in our country. She said that if women study law, they will understand their rights. She wants women and girls to be better able to distinguish between right and wrong – and tackle injustice.

Chowa is determined to work with Ghashforing all her life. She wishes that girls should fly freely in the open sky, Grasshoppers is a belief, an idea, and a name to be trusted. Those who have followed in the footsteps of the original seven girls – will always be supported by Chowa.

Together they will keep stopping early marriages.

Final words of conviction from Chowa?

"There will never be a shortage of Grasshoppers in the open sky."

 

 

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Tasnim Khandoker is an Assistant Producer for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action in Bangladesh.

Learn more about:
Our work in Bangladesh here
Our work to support women and girls here
Or listen to the ‘Voices of women and girls’ here

“I sometimes used to sit and cry but then feel determined at the same time to change my situation from what society perceives [about] people living with disability – that we’re not able to do anything in life. Some parents [even] refer to their disabled children as ‘half pikin’ (half child),” Madi Sefoi tells our radio presenter Marian Tina Conteh.

In Sierra Leone, many people live with different forms of disabilities, but often girls in wheelchairs are seen begging from people passing by in cities around the country.

We met Madi on a production visit to the south of Sierra Leone for our radio programme Wae Gyal Pikin Timap (When a Girl Child Stands). Thousands of girls are out of school in Sierra Leone, so the show aims to turn up the volume on the barriers to education. Increasingly, we identify the issues for girls living with disabilities and give them the opportunity to tell their stories on air and discuss challenges.

We sometimes bring girls to our studio to present alongside our presenter, by acting as the presenter’s friend. We interviewed Madi as a co-host when we visited her province to record with our partner radio stations. She told us that growing up in Bo City (known as ‘Gari town’) wasn’t easy,

‘’I had to put up with the difficulties of going to a public school which was not disabled-friendly in terms of moving around the compound. I used to feel discouraged to be crawling among thousands of students.”

People living with disabilities faced lot of discrimination in their daily lives, she said. Often, families, communities, and society see them as a burden. Some people treat them with disrespect and sometimes mock, provoke, laugh, or call them names like ‘gbenkelenkie’ (bend foot), or believe they are a result of witchcraft or are a curse on their family.

“Transport to go to school and other places was always a nightmare for me because I had to be taken off my wheelchair and helped into it again. People look low at me and that makes me feel unhappy,” Madi continues.

She describes that she finished high school and took the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) but unfortunately did not achieve the requirements for university. She wanted to re-sit but could not afford the entry fees for the exams.

Determined for change

“I decided to start doing something to raise money to be able to take care of myself and save some to fulfill my dream of re-sitting and going to college or do something meaningful in life,” says Madi.

She started plaiting hair for her family and because she was creative with different hair styles, she quickly had friends, family and new customers coming to see her every day. Her reputation grew, she told us people started calling her ‘Madi Sefoi the Bluffay’ (for us this means a lady who is well presented and immaculate), quickly she started earning enough to start taking care of her immediate needs such as food and clothes, and eventually enough to save for her next step.

After hearing an IT course advertised on the radio, Madi left Bo and traveled to Freetown to complete the course. She continued to plait hair to support herself and enrolled for a customer care training course back in Bo City. “I learned how to attend to people and how to manage my time as well,” says Madi. “With all these training experiences, I continue with my passion of plaiting hair… earning some income that I’m using to take care of myself and my immediate family.”

“Disability is not inability”

On our show, Madi told her story. She said people living with disabilities need people to give them attention, support, and encouragement. People should include girls living with disabilities in opportunities that are available to others – in her words “…our disability is not inability. Girls living with disabilities are greatly in need of those opportunities”.

She went further during her Wae Gyal Pikin Timap interview and called on government to address the issues of people living with disabilities, especially girls, to create more opportunities that are accessible and disabled friendly.

Inviting girls like Madi onto the radio programme helps shine light on the issues girls are facing as part of our project called Every Adolescent Girl Empowered and Resilient (EAGER). We identify issues affecting girls who are out of school, including those living with disability, and give them the opportunity to discuss and tell their stories, and most importantly to share their creative solutions.

Meeting Madi was truly inspirational. She featured in an episode called ‘’Disability not holding girls back’’ and we know by inviting young co-hosts on the show it’s helping other girls. Last year, our research found listeners find the programme engaging and they like Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap because it features girls in relatable, real-life situations about issues relevant to their lives, as well as potential solutions. I believe it is how our programmes focus on inspiring and empowering girls which makes the difference.


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Mariama Sesay is a Senior Producer for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action, Sierra Leone

Learn more about the EAGER project here 
Read our new commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion here

As our Land Cruiser leaves the tarmac at Gudele, on the edge of Juba, and takes a right somewhere onto a dirt path, I am reminded there are only about 220km of paved roads in South Sudan, and most of them are here in Juba.

It isn’t really a surprise, then, that after driving just 15 minutes from our office, we find ourselves a world away from the bustling city and heading directly into the bush.

In Joppa, the houses are mostly made of mud bricks, some of cement. They are rectangular in shape and well distanced. Some are fenced for privacy, others protected only by the paths that thousands of feet have etched into the hard soil a few meters away. For someone who, like me, comes from Europe, the scenery is what I always imagined that this part of Africa would look like: sparse green grass, teak and thorny acacia trees and red soil.

As a senior projects manager, I don’t often get to travel to the field to meet the families who listen to our radio programmes. Days like this are a special event and I am looking forward to hearing people’s opinions of our work.

We are about to meet Mama Lia.

Her house is shielded by bamboo sticks, hundreds of them planted firmly into the ground and nailed to each other. The compound is spacious; she has set up some blue plastic chairs for us at the back of the house, next to a patch where she is cultivating local vegetables.

Mama strikes me as a no-nonsense woman. She tells us that yes, she has been listening to Let’s Talk About Us - our radio programme that explores relationships between couples, the role of men and women in the community and family, and the drivers of women’s confidence and motivation around sexual and reproductive health.

Mama Lia recognizes the voice of our Arabic producer. “I know your voice from the radio,” she smiles. “The episode you did on the sex of the child had a big impact on me and my daughter.

'Women are blamed for giving birth to girls'

We relax into our chairs ready to listen as Mama Lia recounts her experience. She is 56 years old, she tells us, a widow with four sons and four daughters, all of them married. She tells us that her daughter Jakeline had been suffering a lot of abuse at the hands of her husband, the reason being that she was only giving birth to baby girls.

“There is a preference for baby boys in South Sudan, you see, and women are blamed for giving birth to girls.”

Over time, the situation became so bad that Jakeline decided to return to her mother’s house.

“Her husband announced he was going to marry another woman so my daughter came back to me with their three girls,” her mother sighs at the memory. “I didn’t know any better then, so I took them back.”

Sometime later, a volunteer from Active Youth Agency - our local partner organisation - brought Mama Lia a radio with some of the Let’s Talk About Us episodes loaded onto it. She listened to all of them and tells us that the one about the sex of the baby really struck a chord.

After listening once, she called her daughter Jakeline so they could listen together and discuss it. They couldn’t believe their ears.

“The doctor on the programme was explaining that it is the sperm of the man that determines the sex of the baby. It is not the woman.”

Mama Lia says she felt vindicated. She even went to the local chief to tell him her discovery and to ask that he help families facing the same issue. “We have always accepted that it is the woman who is responsible for giving birth to too many girls or boys and this has caused a lot of suffering.”

She convinced her daughter Jakeline to take the radio to her husband and listen with him to the episode. “After he heard the information, he apologised to me and he accepted that he should take her and the girls back.”

Mama Lia can’t stress enough how useful that information has been for her. “If I had known this before, I would have confronted my son-in-law early on and spared all of us a lot of suffering.”

Amplifying women’s voices

Women and girls in South Sudan face some of the worst sexual and reproductive health and rights prospects in the world: a maternal mortality ratio of, contraceptive prevalence  and 31 per cent of women bearing . 

reported that sexual and gender-based violence goes unquestioned by many girls and women in South Sudan, with over half of those interviewed believing that rape cannot take place in marriage, and almost 50% disagreeing that a wife can ask her husband to wear a condom.

These challenges are closely linked to low literacy rates and the audience’s needs for trusted information, and we know this requires long-term intervention. Radio is the most accessed and trusted mass media in South Sudan, and content that can challenge a strong patriarchal culture can contribute to increasing the agency of women and girls in decision- making.

The chain of events set in motion by Mama Lia against the social norms and challenges outlined was inspired by our radio programming and confirms that our content is moving in the right direction: helping create change for women and girls.

Access to trusted and accurate information empowered Mama Lia to take action, challenge harmful norms and lobby others, both men and women, to support women’s rights. 

About our work in South Sudan

Since 2020, we have reached over 1.9 million listeners with radios broadcasts of Let’s Talk About Us – roughly 17% of the total population - and engaged 2,765 families in listening groups, or about 23,903 individuals.

Both through radio and in our outreach work, we are managing to reach a mixed gender listenership, of 56% female and 44% male.

This is a crucial achievement, as men’s support is also needed in increasing women’s and girls’ agency and decision-making power.

A midline survey of our listeners also told us that 67% of Let’s Talk About Us listeners are more likely than non-listeners to agree that “a girl/young woman has the right to decide if she wants to use contraceptive methods to avoid pregnancy,” and to agree with other statements about women and girls’ right to choose when to get married, including women and girls with disabilities.

With the help of our programme, Mama Lia has taken brave new steps to etch new paths in her neighbourhood. Our community outreach will ensure others follow in her footsteps.

Let’s Talk About Us is funded by Global Affairs Canada.

 

Eunice introduced me to Patricia, a 37-year-old single mother, who is a regular listener to the programme. Patricia told me about the challenges she went through in her marriage and living with a physical impairment.

“We lived a happy life at the beginning, but it was very short. The relatives of my husband blamed him for marrying a lame woman. They considered their brother to have brought a curse in their family,” Patricia said. “They kept blaming him for marrying me until one day, in 2008, my husband told me that he was going for further studies. Then he went for good in 2020. He went back to his wife in Wau.”

Patricia’s resilience amazed me. Saying “disability is not inability,” she described her work with the South Sudan Ministry of Education in Eastern Equatoria, how she is studying for a degree in human resource management, and how she earns extra income through small business to support her two children – a boy and a girl - to go to school.

Patricia told me her favorite episode of Let’s talk about us was about puberty and body changes in young boys and girls. The episode featured a lady who was surprised when she first saw menstrual blood and didn’t know what it was. She thought that maybe she got pierced by a nail in her buttocks. Patricia says she doesn’t want her daughter to be surprised when she sees period blood in her panties one day. She already understood the need to talk to her children about bodily changes, but she said she did not realise that talking to them about this at an early age - before the changes starts to occur – was advised.

After listening to the programme, she spoke to her children, and she told us her daughter responded and said that a female senior teacher had been talking to them at school, too. She already knew that big girls at school were always given pads.

I related to Patricia’s story because of my own personal experience when I was growing up. My mother never shared any information with me about bodily changes, or even what to expect at a certain age. The day I saw my period had begun, I was very confused and could not approach my mother, because I had never heard that ladies menstruate. It is considered taboo for mothers to discuss menstruation with their daughters. Instead, I spoke with a friend who was older than me, and who had already started her period. She guided me on what to use and how to keep clean, including changing sanitary pads three times a day or even four times, depending on the flow of blood.

After feeling more knowledgeable about talking to her children, Patricia expressed interest in hearing more episodes and said she decided to take the radio to her workplace, so that her colleagues can listen too, and be empowered to make their own decisions about sexual and reproductive health and their rights, after learning the facts from experts and hearing real people’s stories.

I’m happy Let’s talk about us is shining a light on the issues that women and girls face in South Sudan, and it is good to see how it is inspiring change. There is much still to do, and many taboo topics to address. For instance, many husbands will send their wives back to their families if they give birth to too many daughters – but not if they have many sons. Newly created episodes are helping spark discussions around the sex of babies, and through the programme, listeners are informed of how babies are conceived and how the sex is determined.

Looking ahead, our community mobilisation activities around Let’s talk about us will go beyond providing knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and rights. We plan to broaden our focus to changing attitudes and perceptions about how women, girls and people living with disability can freely access services and build themselves a brighter future.

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The radio programme Let’s talk about us forms part of our project, Amplifying Women’s Voices, which is supported by Global Affairs Canada. Find out more about our work in South Sudan here.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action works to raise awareness about gender-related issues, to change harmful social norms and individual attitudes, and contribute to reducing gender inequality.

Through the ‘Empowerment and Equality’ project, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we brought media and gender experts together for constructive discussions about gender equality in Libya. A hybrid of on-site and online trainings brought together nine Libyan journalists working with ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action, and 11 representatives of Libyan feminist civil society organisations. This training equipped our team with the skills to create gender-sensitive content, and enhanced feminist organisations’ understanding of media and communication, to help them communicate with media outlets more effectively.

After the training, and in line with the 16 Days of Activism campaign, we published a story produced by our Benghazi-based reporter, Abdulmunsef Adam, with the support of Jurists Without Borders in Benghazi. , a housewife from the south of Libya who started a peace initiative between two dominant and fighting tribes: Awlad Suliman and Ghadadfa.

Aisha is from the Awlad Suliman tribe and her efforts followed many failed attempts at peace-making led by men. As a result of her peace initiative, conflict between the two tribes has diminished.

The story reached over 210K Libyans, 48 per cent of which are women, and generated many positive engagements. One of the comments said, “May God bless you and may He reward you for bringing these two tribes together and stopping the killings… You are the pride of the Suliman’s tribe and the pride of Libya, a true ambassador of peace.”

Another said: “May God bless you and all the sisters who have cooperated with you and helped solve this dilemma. Libya is a land where honorable men and women are born.”

Through this story and others like it, El Kul highlights women’s contributions to society, and helps change negative attitudes.

Our research shows that our content has identified fundamental issues of concern, and has resonated with audiences. According to an e-survey, 20 out of 21 respondents agreed that the video encourages women to contribute to peacebuilding. Twenty respondents also agreed that the video promotes the active participation of women in their communities, and demonstrates that they have proven themselves successful in helping to build peace.

Although projects like this can help bridge the gender gap, we know that gender inequality persists. Women and girls continue to struggle with discriminatory laws and social norms. They face real challenges in making decisions for themselves, having equal access to the job market, getting involved in leadership positions and in some places, even enjoying freedom of movement. And, of course, many cannot even live free from violence.

Our efforts to end inequality must continue, to build a safer world for girls and women to realise their rights and contribute to their societies.

To the heart of the Silk Road

We started with a trip to Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, in the west, 700 kilometres from Kabul. This city was at the heart of the ancient Silk Road and it is breath-taking, famous for its ancient sites, its arts and culture.

On our journey we passed four minarets commissioned 700 years ago by the powerful Mughul queen Gawhardshad Begum, which have survived decades of bombings by Soviet and then American forces. To me, they signify elegance and strength – much like the young women we were about to meet for our programmes, Open Jirga, and our new online show, WhatMatters2U, focused on young people.

In Herat, I found myself moderating a discussion among 30 young women, including small business owners, software designers, engineers, and a group of girls who are Afghanistan’s first and only girls’ robotics team.

A new generation of women

These young women represent a new generation. They have overcome deeply entrenched patriarchal culture and traditions to get an education, and to achieve in fields that are not traditional for women in even more equal societies. The fame of the girls’ robotics team has travelled far beyond the boundaries of this conservative province and even outside of Afghanistan itself.

In my work I have heard so many stories of women abused and deprived of their most basic rights – to education, to proper health care, to grow up before being married and bearing children. Herat remains deeply conservative, with some of the highest reported rates of violence against women in the country. Domestic abuse is so pervasive that the town’s main hospital even has a dedicated ward for female survivors of self-immolation – linked to severe abuse and extreme domestic violence.

And yet here stood these young women, with a line-up of high-tech devices – their creations - on display. Sumaya, the captain of the robotics’ team, proudly shared with our group a medical device first created from old car parts. “This is an alternative machine to a ventilator. We invented this to save lives during this pandemic,” she said.

'Against the dominant beliefs of society'

But Sumaya and her team also spoke of the many hurdles that block progress for Afghan women – a feeling echoed by many of the comments during the show. We broadcast this episode as a Facebook Live which drew a quarter of a million viewers, who joined our studio audience in asking questions of these remarkable women. How might women in other parts of the country learn these skills, when so many do not have access to education? Why can women not have support to achieve in technology?

‘What we make is against the dominant beliefs in our society. Making hardware and software is not perceived as a woman’s expertise,” said one of our participants, a software designer. Despite her achievements, she too has felt limited by cultural restrictions and constant threat of violence, and said she is virtually stuck in this corner of Afghanistan. “I couldn’t go to Kabul to receive an award for one of our products, due to safety concerns and family restrictions,” she said.

The mothers of these young women also joined the show, and I asked them what it has taken to realise their daughters’ dreams. The mother of one of the young women on the robotics team described the pain and worry she feels over her daughter’s achievements.

“When my daughter steps out of the house, and until she returns, my heart is pounding, worrying about her safety. But most painful is [knowing] the negative beliefs of society, towards girls going out of home and doing what is seen as taboo,” she said. “I have said to save the future of this country, we have to pay the price and go through endless hardship.”

The city without women

With her words in my ears, our next stop was Kandahar, 300 kilometres to the south and Afghanistan’s second-largest city. It was my first trip here and when we arrived, I thought of it as ‘the city without women’, as there were no women to be seen on the streets - women are expected to remain at home, out of sight.

This is the heartland of the Taliban, which forbids girls’ education and progress, and still controls some of its districts.

In this conservative setting, we had decided to do something unprecedented: an all-women show, inviting 50  women to ask questions of a panel that included Afghanistan’s Minister of the Economy, one of few women in Cabinet.

We expected many to refuse. Many had journeys to the studio that took them directly through areas of conflict. Yet 47 of the 50 invited women turned up. Despite the hardship and the risk, these women wanted to be heard.

The best Women's Day gift - equality

In all of our sessions, we had to take security precautions – both against COVID-19, and against the threat of violence. To protect against the virus, we held our sessions outdoors, ensured everyone washed their hands and wore masks, and ensured physical distance between guests. And to help protect these women against repercussions for participating, we invited them to keep their faces covered if they wished, and ensured none of our participants were named.

Yet few were discouraged from speaking. The best Women’s Day gift, one said, would be if her family and her society would respect her and treat her as an equal human being. Another wanted to study what she was interested in – journalism and broadcasting – instead of Islamic studies, as her family insisted.

But the one whose voice will remain with me was a 40-something mother who arrived a few minutes late. She was among the first to raise her hand to speak – but when she did, she broke down in tears. Her journey to make herself heard, she said, had almost cost her her life, as she had found herself caught in an armed battle between the Taliban and government forces.

'We deserve a normal life'

“There is fighting in our district every day,” she said. “We are exhausted and shattered by bullets and bombs.”

After the show, I pulled her aside. Why had she gone through such danger to attend our show? She told me simply that she wanted our panel, and the world, to know that Afghanistan women needed to breathe. They deserve a normal life.

Open Jirga is ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s long-running debate and discussion programme covering issues of national importance for Afghans. WhatMatters2U is a social media-led debate and discussion programme aimed at young audiences, particularly women and girls. Both are funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

“The best person to advocate for a girl is the girl herself,” says 16-year-old Tamu in Sierra Leone.

Tamu is co-presenting on a special episode of ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action radio programme Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap (‘When a Girl Child Stands Strong’) to mark International Women’s Day 2021. The episode looks at this year’s theme - #choosetochallenge - through the eyes of girls: how girls see inequity in Sierra Leone, which everyday difficulties and imbalances most affect them, and how they would like those around them to stand with them on calling out these issues.

As a guest co-presenter, Tamu works alongside the show’s regular presenters, conducting interviews, helping to choose guests and introducing themes and segments.

Life can be tough for girls in Sierra Leone, who tend to have lower school attendance and higher drop-out rates than boys, as well as a high incidence of early marriage and early pregnancy.

The girls talk about inequality in education, where girls are not sent to school as frequently as boys, and the distribution of household chores which tend to fall to girls, as well as more serious issues like rape and early marriage.

Some girls in Sierra Leone say they don’t feel able to talk about inequities and challenges with adults around them. But in her role as co-presenter, Tamu encourages girls to find their voices and speak out, and calls on others to stand with them against inequality:

“If you try to advocate for yourself, then other people can come and help you. We can’t stand up on our own – we need everyone to stand up with us. But if we girls just sit back, people will think that we are okay with what is happening to us - when in reality we are really not okay.”

When a girl stands strong

Tamu is the latest young co-presenter in ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s girls’ empowerment radio show. Produced nationally, and broadcast weekly on over 60 radio stations in Sierra Leone, Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap is the show which sees the world through the stories and experiences of girls.

It aims to create a more positive and supportive environment around marginalised girls in Sierra Leone – particularly those who are not in education - by showing audiences what girls can achieve when they are valued, listened to, encouraged and given more equal opportunities.

It is a girl-led, girl-centred format that marks an innovative new approach to girls’ empowerment. “As a young girl, I wanted my voice to be heard,” says 17-year-old Mary, another recent co-presenter.

“Society thinks that it’s best to make decisions for us - but it’s the opposite. I hope parents, caregivers, and society listening to the programme will change their mindset about girls and will give girls the right and chance to make decisions.”

Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap focuses less on problems and more on solutions – including ideas and solutions which girls have found for themselves. The approach is changing the way girls are seen in their families and communities.

“Whenever I listen to the programme, I call to other children around the community - not just my daughter – to come and listen to the stories of their colleagues,” says one mother in the rural district of Kono. Her own teenage daughter has dropped out of school, but she feels inspired by the girls voices she hears in the show. “I love the program as they interview girls to tell their stories,” she told the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action research team.

Choosing to challenge – by girls for girls

A father who listens to the programme calls his teenage son to join him when the show comes on: “The children they use to participate on air are very bold and I like that a lot. In fact, I use that to motivate my son. The most interesting part of the programme for me is when they involve the kids in it. It is very important, and it is a motivating factor for most kids around the district.”

As well as the national show, ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action journalism mentors are also training and supporting 18 local radio stations to produce their own local versions of the show – with the aim of showcasing local examples, services and solutions to help generate and spark community discussions around the issues raised.

It’s a first step towards changing the media culture in Sierra Leone, to put more voices of women and girls on air - and to allow girls themselves to lead discussions around girls’ empowerment.

For the girls who have taken part in the programmes, it already feels like that change is happening.

“Being on Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap was like being part of the new era already unfolding - and it felt great!” says 19-year-old Millicentia Boateng, another previous co-presenter. “Discussing girls’ issues is an inspiration especially to myself - to do more, live more and inspire more. I hope people who've heard me on the radio look at things from my eye’s view and protect girls.’’

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Wae Gyal Pikin Tinap is part of the EAGER project – which is funded by UK Aid from the UK government. Learn more about the project . 

Our aim is to enable women in Somalia to overcome the barriers they face in accessing the labour market, and so tackle the hardships that result from poverty, conflict and a clan-based culture which promotes strict male hierarchy and authority. Religious and cultural limitations also impact women’s role and societal status.

Our project, Somali Women's Economic Empowerment and Transformation (SWEET), helps enhance business skills, builds networks, and overcomes cultural myths and norms around the status of women in the community, in part by including religious leaders in our discussions. We also provide Somali people with public platforms to discuss issues surrounding women entrepreneurship, including success stories from role models, and the cultural norms that hinder women’s success in the business world, through our Facebook and Twitter pages and our work with five local radio stations, producing localised programmes in their regions.

Celebrating real-life successes

This local work is accompanied by a national radio drama featuring real-life success stories of women in business, and how they overcame negative myths and cultural norms; it also invites audiences to interact by discussing ‘dilemma’ questions.

For instance, Fardaus, who is 24 and the proud owner of a boutique in Hargeisa, told me that her aunt helped her to convince her father to agree to her business, and support her financially to realise her dream.

"The more my business grew, the more I became independent," she told me, smiling. "I have also inspired many young women in setting up small businesses.’’ Faurdaus is a university graduate with a degree in computer science; she now hopes to build on her success with a chain of boutiques in cities across Somaliland.

Despite all the challenges women entrepreneurs encounter in Somalia, they are showing that they are up to the challenge of being skilled business operators, often while also balancing their more traditional roles.

By encouraging dialogue among men and women, providing information on business opportunities, training in financial management and ‘soft skills’ like customer relations, and providing access to business networks and financial services, we believe these women are empowered for a better future for themselves and for their community and society.

SWEET is supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) - learn more about the project here.

Public interest media are essential in the pandemic to reach a wide audience with trusted information. Radio is still the most powerful format in Ethiopia, as many remote and rural communities otherwise have no access to media at all. Our support for our partner radio stations helps ensure these communities receive reliable information.

But in urban centres, Internet use is exploding, especially through mobile phones and among young audiences. We are proud that our new Facebook page, launched earlier this year, already has more than 11,000 followers, and we are working hard to make sure we can reach audiences and engage wherever they access information most.

The biggest problem we face now is that people are tired of hearing about the pandemic, and some are even beginning to forget about the importance of using face masks and physical distancing. The six-month state of emergency declared to control the virus has been lifted, although COVID-19 prevention measures remain in place and are required for people who run businesses that attract large numbers of customers.. The initial fear and panic seem to have passed. People are much more worried about their livelihoods, everyday social issues and security amidst the possibility of further unrest. It is almost as if the pandemic has been forgotten.

But we are still at risk. As of November, we have had more than 100,000 reported cases till November, although the figures may be underreported as people do not always have access to testing. In rural areas in particular, access to water is often difficult, so it can be hard to practice regular handwashing with soap.

As we pay more attention to the impact of the pandemic on people’s lives and livelihoods, and how they are coping, we continue to remind audiences across all of our outputs that COVID-19 hasn’t gone away, and that it’s still important to wash hands regularly, maintain physical distancing and wear face coverings. We constantly challenge ourselves to ensure all our stories are engaging and memorable to grab people’s attention! This is an exciting part of the job.

When we started off, we worked on a series of stories about ordinary people supporting the most vulnerable in their communities. One was about a woman who is highly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of a lung condition, and how a group of young entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa ensured she was able to stay at home while continuing to make a living by supporting her in a bead-jewellery-making enterprise. Her products were collected from her and sold online, with the proceeds returned to her to look after herself and her daughter. That was really inspiring, to see how people can support each other to get through this pandemic. I was touched by this story and to date it remains my favourite.

Another story that I feel strongly about is a film about a new women-led ride-sharing company, whose drivers are also all women, and how they are working to keep drivers and passengers safe. This start-up success is a positive story of women’s economic empowerment at a time that is especially difficult for women and girls, because of disruptions to education and employment, and increased risk of domestic violence.

The ultimate joy and pride for me comes from the fact that my work will provide people with information that helps them and their families and communities stay safe, while dealing with the impact of the pandemic on their everyday lives.

It has been a challenging time to work in health communication but we know that it’s important to continue. It will take help from every part of our society to control the virus and our work is helping to remind people that they need to be aware of its impact, and to continue to protect themselves as best they can.

The Lifeline communication in the COVID-19 pandemic project is funded by and running in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Broadcasting from 6 am to midnight, the station has an active Facebook page, but delivering news and information is a constant challenge, says Patricia, with only two outdated computers to share.

“We don’t have [enough] modern equipment like computers to ease our work. Sometimes we have to use phones to file our news stories. Another major challenge in our story collection is inadequate transport which deter our efforts to reach remote areas, where the real issues are,” she says.

But despite the odds, Patricia is proud of the role her station has played in sharing important information about the political process, particularly in the run-up to expected Zambian elections next year. They have also covered stories that range from the importance of rainwater harvesting to protect against drought, to addressing tribalism and discrimination in the country.

She describes how the station covers stories of marginalised people in Livingstone, including human interest stories about people with disabilities, older people and children, and social issues such as a proposed social cash transfer programme by government.

“I remember one story of a girl with a disability who had qualified to go to university but was not admitted because of the lack of physical facilities. After a public radio debate about this discrimination, she has since been enrolled into university.”

Knowing our fundamental rights as women

She faces additional challenges which she attributes to attitudes toward gender in a traditional society. “Sources take advantage of us as women by making indirect sexual advances when we are sourcing for information,” she says. “Sometimes they do not take us seriously.”

This is, she says, where the partnership with ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action has been particularly supportive for her. In addition to working with the station on editorial content and standards, she says ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action has helped her develop as a journalist and better understand her own rights. She encourages other young female journalists to not be intimidated and to rely on their ethics, and encourages partner radio stations to provide more support to their female journalists.

“ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action has been a great partner and all I am today, I owe to them. Apart from the media work they have a special component of safeguarding that has taught us to be aware of our fundamental rights as women and what to do if we are being taken advantage of by men in the course of our duties,” she says.

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Chishaba Masengu is a mentor for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action in Zambia
Our 'Radio Waves' project is funded by The Swedish International development Agency, find out more here.

Sarah:

The first thing I hear in the refugee camp is, “Rohingya women can do anything, I can do anything.”

Ayesha, about 60, shows us into her makeshift home with grace and warmth. My ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action colleagues and I sit on the beaten earth floor of her plastic hut dwelling. We’re in one of the biggest refugee camps in the world: Kutupalong, just outside Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh.

Her welcome is impressive and humbling. She has her baby grandson in her arms. His mother and father are conspicuous by their absence. We don’t ask where they are.

Four writers, a drama director and I are in the camp to talk to any of the Rohingya refugees kind enough to give us their time. But unlike so many of the journalists and NGO workers present, we’re not here to talk about their recent traumatic experiences, instead we want to know about life in the camp and how they’re coping now.

Earlier in the year, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted funding to and ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action to create a radio drama for Rohingya communities, specifically to help women and girls. As the project’s radio drama consultant, I’m here to help shape the production team’s ideas into a 20-episode synopsis.

Listening to real women’s stories

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action often uses drama as a way to approach sensitive issues, and one of them is what NGOs call Gender-Based Violence, or GBV. This laudably non-judgmental expression is new to me and I can see the advantage of its neutrality. This term respects cultural practices, whereas terms such as ‘wife beating’, ‘sexual assault’ or ‘grievous bodily harm’ could be seen as pejorative and risk shutting down conversations around the issue. By understanding the experiences of Rohingya women and girls, and exploring them openly, this new radio drama has the opportunity to help address sexual violence and abuse.

Back in the office, my Media Action colleagues presented their excellent new research into GBV among the Rohingya community in Cox’s Bazar. It revealed that many Rohingya women experience forms of GBV such as child marriage, intimate partner violence and sexual abuse. In the context of a poorly-lit, overcrowded camp, the risks intensify. This research is an invaluable resource, providing accurate evidence which the team can consult when trying out new plot lines.

Changing the story

We know that character-led, long form drama has the power to shift opinions, and the hope is that this serial will subtly increase knowledge around GBV through stories with which both men and women can empathise. This drama, created specifically for the Rohingya crisis, will also inform people about the support services available to them in the camp.

But perhaps the drama’s true power is presenting the flip-side, illustrating the largely untapped potential of women and girls.

So the team and I got down to the job of sticking plot lines to the wall, creating the stories for each character over 20 episodes. The writing and directing team were used to working for screen, so I ran a couple of workshops on the relationship between radio scriptwriting and sound effects. The team tried out their draft scripts with their backs turned to the actors – the test was whether they could ‘see’ in their mind’s eye what was physically happening in the scene and which character was talking.

And the production team aren’t alone, the Rohingya audience is unused to radio drama too. One of the challenges is to ensure that the audience understand that the episodes aren’t a real, fly-on-the-wall documentary, but fiction.

Entertaining and informing

The refugees in Kutupalong have little to do and face an uncertain future in their new home of Bangladesh. A drama that could entertain and distract a bored and traumatised people, even for a moment, must be useful. But crucially, it also has the potential to get them talking, asking wider questions around their situation: it could be massive.

Back in the camp, Ayesha walks us up the hill on which her hut is precariously perched. Together, we look out over the vast camp, past the trees and the water to Myanmar. ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ.

Perhaps it might come as a surprise to the menfolk in her community to hear Ayesha talk to us so fluently, confidently, proudly about her skills as a net maker. So we have given her a voice – basing one of our characters on her.

After all she can do anything.

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Sarah Bradshaw has worked for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Drama as a producer, director and writer. She’s also worked as a consultant for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s very own Life in Lulu.

Our new radio drama for Rohingya communities is currently in piloting and is due to air in Cox’s Bazar in early 2019. To find out more about how we’re responding to the Rohingya crisis and how listening to those affected informs our work, take a look at .

If you’d like to learn more about how drama can be an effective tool for tackling sensitive issues such as gender-based violence, you might like to read written by our Executive Director, Caroline Nursey, last year.