TERZE TEHA

Sulaymaniyah- Hejan Xalid, a doctoral student Media, Journalism, and Communications Department, prepared two dissertations on the problems faced by women journalists in the Federal Kurdistan Region. 85% of women journalists were subjected to sexual violence in the last two years, according to the dissertations.

As part of the dissertations, a survey entitled, “Violence against women journalists in the Kurdistan Region” was carried out. 50 women journalists aged between 18 and 35 participated in the survey. 31 percent of women journalists stated that they were subjected to psychological harassment, 29 percent to online harassment, 18 percent to discrimination, 16 percent to verbal abuse, and 4 percent to sexual harassment. 50% of women journalists were subjected to repeated abuse, 17% several times, 8% every day, and 4% once.

Women could not react to harassment

The survey reveals that 60% of women journalists were subjected to harassment. 19% of journalists were subjected to harassment at work while 13% of them were subjected to harassment elsewhere. “94% of women journalists could not react to harassment,” the survey says.

100 women journalists participated in the second part of the survey. 60% of them were reporters, 28% were presenters and 12 percent were journalists working in different parts of the media. 81% of the women journalists were subjected to online harassment, according to the survey. 79% of the women journalists were subjected to harassment by strangers, 11% of them were subjected to harassment at work. In the survey, the participated women were asked, “Does the harassment or violence you faced affect your work?” 79.56% of women said “No”, 33.3 said “Yes” while 9.88% said, “I don’t know”.

Don’t keep silent

Hejan Xalid spoke to JINHA about the results of the survey. Pointing out that women journalists should know how to protect themselves when they are subjected to harassment and sexual abuse, Hejan Xalid emphasized that more women journalists will face violence and harassment if they keep silent.