Saudi women journalists battle to overcome hurdles

Riyadh, Aug 8: They are few in number but determined to make their mark -- women journalists in Saudi Arabia have fought hard to get where they are and say they have more than proved themselves the equal of men.

The kingdom is one of the most restrictive places in the world for women, where powerful clerics say a woman's place is in the home, raising a family.

Women cannot drive cars, must be accompanied in public by male relatives, and must cover themselves up in anonymous black robes lest they incite men's sexual desire.

But despite limitations on women in the workplace, many who have ventured into the media industry as Saudi Arabia opens up under King Abdullah have attracted attention for their tenacity and professionalism.

A young print journalist in the capital Riyadh, who declined to be named, said female journalists had a lot of strengths people might not appreciate.

''I want to speak out,'' she said.

The journalist, who hails from the less restrictive Eastern Province on the Gulf coast, said her family supported her ambitions but Saudi society made it difficult to do her work.

''The problem is we don't have media departments at university for women. But you need to know how to write, and I don't have the tools,'' she said in an interview.

''Media means working evenings. You can't do interviews except in your office, and if you go to a hotel lobby, it's a crime,'' she said, recounting how a colleague was hauled off by the Saudi morality police for interviewing an unrelated man.

''You have to find safe ways. I have to be really careful. In Saudi Arabia, every one is watching you,'' she said.

Morality Police

The religious police, who believe women should cover their entire faces, can cause problems for a woman taking the pulse of public opinion on the street. Seating arrangements also separate women journalists from men at news conferences. Adlah, a photographer and journalist in Riyadh, said she usually gets a positive response from Saudis she interviews while walking around malls, although suspicion surrounds these places since they are seen as fertile flirting grounds.

Sitting down to interview men is a problem.

''Cafes? Oh no! Cafes are closed spaces. It is against the culture and my family would be very upset. People think coffee shops are for families and relaxation,'' Adlah said.

A sit-down interview in the relative privacy of a mall is no better: ''Never! (People) think, 'What's he going to buy you?''' She said women journalists tend to work harder than men.

''The men are careless, they don't want to work at anything at all. They are very lazy. They come to work at 10 and go home at 2, while the women will start at 8 and leave at 5,'' she said.

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's more liberal second city of 2.5 million people, women have made a name for themselves on English-language papers as well as some Arabic dailies that are based in this ancient city on the Red Sea.

''The girls don't have any fears. They were told the first day that it's not an easy job,'' says Sabria Jawhar, Jeddah bureau chief of the Saudi Gazette. ''It's a matter of will-power -- they will find a way if they really want to.'' Jawhar's team of young female reporters has gained access to stories men would be afraid to touch. They have covered issues like prostitution among foreign workers in a country where such activities can result in public flogging.

''It was something new, and then we found that what we write is actually read. You feel proud of yourself when you tackle an issue people were afraid to talk about,'' said Shroog Radain, one of Jawhar's staff of women reporters.

''But we are a tabloid, it's easy for us to write here at the Saudi Gazette. It's harder in the Arabic press,'' she said.

TV Presenters

Now Saudi television is trying to present a modernising face, employing women as newscasters and as hosts of day-time chat shows -- something unheard-of just a few years ago.

''Ten years ago when I started people used to be surprised if a woman journalist turned up to report anywhere,'' said Rima al-Shamikh, a news anchor with al-Ikhbariya who reported from the field during the violent campaign launched by al Qaeda sympathisers in 2003 to bring down the Saudi monarchy.

Shamikh's job is all the more sensitive because she hails from one of Saudi Arabia's most prestigious clans.

''It was difficult to be a journalist or appear on television because I am from the Enaza tribe. They tried to say I was Palestinian or Lebanese, to deny that I was Saudi,'' she said.

''The atmosphere is ready now, but women should only get into this profession if they love it. It's not a profession that brings a lot of money. I have no social life and hardly see my children, but I love the profession.'' Shamikh said Saudi society was coming to accept that women often made better reporters than men.

''There is an important point with women of being insistent and professional,'' she said. ''Sometimes I am very aggressive and even hostile as a reporter. Society accepts that.''

Reuters