Tehran, 7 September 2006_

Soudabeh Sadigh (CHN Foreign Desk) -- The second day of the joint workshop on the Role of Media in Introducing and Protecting Cultural Heritage was held yesterday as part of the workshop organized by UNESCO and Cultural Heritage News Agency (CHN). The title of yesterday’s workshop in the morning session was “Media and Women,” during which the attendees in the workshop who were mostly journalists and cultural heritage experts from Iran and other regional countries and OIC member states including Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Tunisia talked about the role of women in today’s media and women and cultural identity.

 

Dr. Ahmadnia, Professor of Alameh Tabatabayi University in Tehran and member of Center for Women Studies in Iran was the facilitator of this session. Considering the important role of the media in people’s every day life and that the media rank third after family and school in forming people’s ideas about today’s world, the role of women in family and in the society was discussed in detail.

 

The rapidly changing media literacy is now emerging and expanding in schools and in other community settings to look at the role media potentially or actually play in our lives, in our ideas and actions.

 

“While it is true that things have changed largely for women in the last thirty years due to lots of women acting for progress and equality for women and girls, there is still more that needs to be done,” said Ahmadnia in her speech.

 

Good health, genuine self-esteem, understanding of and comfort with sexuality, relationships based on respect and equality, safety from domestic and sexual violence, goal setting and career success, sound financial judgment, and educated participation in the society activities were the top agenda discussed in this session.

 

What the majority of the attendees agreed upon was that although the situation and the role of  woman have changed a lot over time, specially during the last decades, women are still in poverty more than men are and their rights are not equal to those of men in most societies. However, the participants all agreed that we should not put the blame just on the governments and social systems and it is the duty of women to learn how to defend their rights in the society and that they must have faith in themselves.

 

Dr. Lamia Al-Gailani Werr, Iraqi archeologist who teaches at the British University, believed that the role of women in social and political activities is quite different from one society to the other, even in Muslim countries. “For example, today in some Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey, we have witnessed the presence of women in high political ranks; also in Iran we see the active presence of women in social activities. Even in Arab countries, we see that a very important Palestinian political figure is a woman, which indicates the presence of women has notably increased in Islamic countries,” said Al-Gailani Werr.

 

Ms. Hajer Ben Nasr, manager of Nasr for Art Production Company in Tunisia, was another participant in this workshop. Ben Nasr also believed that the position of women is quite different from one society to the other. As an example, she referred to her own country, Tunisia, where due to the recent policies which have been implied in the society by the Tunisian President, women have gained higher chances to participate in social activities and many obstacles and discrimination have been lifted not only in Tunisia, but many North African countries.

 

Ms. Ben Nasr said that considering the important role women play in the societies, they should have a more active role in the mass media as well including news agencies, newspapers and television, noting that in television channels, women should take a step beyond mere commercial advertising. “It is so upsetting to see that in many modern societies and western countries women are mainly looked upon as objects to be used in commercials. Women must believe themselves and not let themselves be misused this way,” added Ben Nasr.

 

On the other hand, Dr. Ahmadnia said that the enrolment of the Iranian women in the mass media in Iran shows an acceptable increase compared to other occupation in the country. However, there are still a lot of obstacles which should be removed to pave the way for further participation of women in different social activities.

 

All the participants in this workshop agreed that it is the government which should provide the facilities and conditions to improve the status of women in the society by supporting them through setting appropriate regulations and women themselves must not stand still and should do their best to defend their rights in the society.

 

Ahmadnia explained that according to a study released in 2001, in the most powerful media companies, women hold about 10% of the executive positions. On the other hand, according to a record released by the International Foundation of Journalism in 2001, 38% of the journalists active in the mass media are women which is almost an acceptable rate.

 

“As women continue to struggle for equality in the media, research shows that those who actually work in this industry contribute most in improving the status of women in the societies. Behind the scenes, they can have a definite impact on the way women are portrayed on the screen and in print,” said Ahmadnia.

 

The workshop continued in the evening with the title of Digital Media and Cultural Heritage.  

 

 

foreigndesk@chn.ir