ÎBTÎSAM AXFÎR

Benghazi- Students of the Communication Department at Benghazi University have to do projects for digital platforms in order to graduate from the university. On August 15, five students discussed which kinds of projects they should do on data journalism, digital newspaper, YouTube, and podcast. After discussion, they decided to do projects on women’s issues. However, working on these issues was not as easy as they thought.

They want to raise women’s issues

Esra Abdel Hakim El-Jahmi talked about her project. “I chose the name of my podcast project on Libyan women's issues as ‘She’. The reason why I chose digital media instead of written media is that there aren’t specialists on podcasts working on women’s issues in Libya.” Esra Abdel Hakim El-Jahmi is determined to continue to produce podcasts and to raise women’s issues in the country. The Communication Department didn’t accept her thoughts at first but she insisted on her thoughts and the department accepted them.

Women strongly reacted to her

Esra El-Casmi is another student who decided to work on women’s issues for her project. But she had many difficulties because women didn’t want to talk to her. “Most women refused to speak because my questions were about violence against women, what people think about women’s divorce and how society affects women’s lives. I tried to persuade women to speak anonymously, but I faced strong reactions from women. That’s why I couldn’t complete my project.”

She worked on domestic violence

Asila Al-Tarhouni chose to work on domestic violence in Libya for her project. “My project was about domestic violence in Libya. I tried to get information about domestic violence but I faced many difficulties in getting information. I could have done my project better if I had not faced difficulties in getting information,” Asila Al-Tarhouni said that she chose this topic because she saw how women face domestic violence in Libya.

Marwa Bourguia talked about her project on infographics. The name of her project is “Infographics of Benghazi.” However, Marwa Bourguia also faced many difficulties in getting information.