Qatari women and journalism, achievements and challenges

Qatari women have achieved a prominent presence in the media field, helped by a clear government policy that has strengthened their role and opened a window for them to contribute in this field, in parallel with other fields in which women have proven ability to work in order to achieve the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030, which seeks to exploit all community energies to create a bright future for the country.The role of women in the media and journalism fields has evolved with the development of their roles, and the prospects that have opened, especially during the past two decades, to emerge as pioneers in various fields, becoming ministers, ambassadors, judges and businesswomen, as well as engineer, doctor, teacher, athlete, skilled in the world of arts and creativity, and in the police and army.The indicators reflect this strong presence of Qatari women in the fields of development, as Qatar leads countries in the region in indicators of gender equality, including the highest rate of women's participation in the labour force, and equal wages in the government sector, in addition to the highest rate of female enrolment in universities.The media field, with its diversity and different means, was one of the fields where Qatari women were present years ago.Qatari women appeared on Qatari television in the seventies, and through Qatar Radio stations, several Qatari female reporters left an important imprint in this field.During the same period, the first women's magazine Al-Jawhara was launched at the beginning of 1977. It ceased publication in the late 1990s.Distinguished Qatari female writers also made their presence in local newspapers that were published at the time, while their presence continued through the written press until the present time.The Associate Professor of Media at the Community College of Qatar (CCQ) and former editor-in-chief Dr Ahmed Abdel-Malik, said in a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Qatari women have contributed to the march of the Qatari press since the launch of Al-Orouba magazine in 1970, and this contribution was limited to publishing short stories and opinion articles, given that most of the contributions are from Qatari women writers, and some of them then moved to write articles that touch on the reality of women and society.The current statistics indicate that the number of Qatari women writers in the daily press issued inside Qatar reaches about 70, dealing with internal and external political, social, cultural, religious, educational and sports issues.A report by the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) indicates, that women are present in television and in radio stations, in newsrooms, news institutions and websites, and they play a prominent role in developing the media scene.Qatar has provided equal opportunities for men and women to receive quality education in the field of journalism, as Qatar University and Northwestern University in Qatar enrolls dozens of Qatari women students annually, in addition to the efforts of Qatar Media Corp, which encourages and attracts Qatari women to media work and provides qualification, training and employment opportunities at its media agencies.The Media Center for Youth of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, which was established in 2017, also works to support amateurs and professionals who wish to engage in media work of all age groups.It provides rehabilitation and training for girls and young people on various media skills, while disseminating their creativity and intellectual output on its various social media outlets.Al Jazeera Media Institute, affiliated to Al Jazeera network, plays an important role in providing the journalistic and media field in the country with female cadres in various journalistic sections, as part of its role in developing the journalism and media profession in the region.Despite these achievements and women's presence in the media scene, this does not mean that there are no challenges facing Qatari women at this level, which are challenges related to the limited presence in the leadership positions of press institutions, and journalistic field work, and women in the Arab world suffer from this limitation as well, as many studies and surveys that dealt with this issue indicate.Dr Abdel-Malik explains the limited presence of women in leadership positions and field work, by the society's view of journalistic work as work for men, and the abundance of attractive opportunities for women in sectors other than journalism.As a result, and from experience, over the 50 years of Qatari journalism, professional field journalists have not appeared, and 80 % of media graduates at Qatar University go to work in public relations.Dr Abdel-Malik confirms that there is strong support for attracting Qatari female journalists to work in newspapers.He said that although the Qatar Media Corp encourages girls to work in the press and employs them to devote themselves to journalistic work, and although the editors-in-chief of newspapers support the work of women in the press by allocating special places for them, giving them rewards, and promising positions in the future, all this did not attract women to work in the local newspaper.He goes on to say that journalistic work is hard and it requires patience, perseverance, and awareness of the value of the journalistic writing in dealing with community issues, and what the bodies, such as the Qatar Media Corp, and the role of Qatari newspapers have done, are considered among the main motivators for the necessity of the presence of women in journalistic work, but for the reasons mentioned above, women's participation in journalistic work is limited.In a related context, many studies indicate that empowering women to lead press institutions is still limited throughout the Arab world, and it is an existing challenge for Qatari female journalists.In this context, Dr Moza al-Malki, a psychological expert and journalist writer who won the State Incentive Award in Literature for the year 2005, confirms in statements to QNA, that Qatari women realised amazing achievements in various sectors and reached high positions, despite that, they did not reach leadership position in press institutions.She said that there is great encouragement from the state for female journalists, incentives, and multiple journalistic opportunities, and they should be exploited and invested to reach leadership positions.She added that Qatari women should pay attention to practicing the profession of journalism and encourage each other to go into the field of journalism, discuss women's issues and societal requirements, and search for deficiencies in the services provided to them and their families, and the participation of Qatari female writers and journalists should not be limited to opinion articles, thoughts and short stories only.Dr al-Malki added that the mission of the Qatari journalist should go beyond field investigations, news stories, presenting issues and opinions through press surveys, and social media may help to reach creativity.She added that the success of Qatari women in other media fields in television, radio, newsrooms and media monitoring, and their strong presence in the field of new media gives them credit to pave their way to excellence in the world of journalism, and to assume leadership positions in press institutions in the future.Emna Nafa Al-Obaidly, a field journalist in Al-Watan newspaper, expressed her great confidence in the ability of Qatari women to achieve great supremacy in field journalism and in leadership of journalistic work, supported by a rational government policy to empower her and enhance her role in the development process and the implementation of Qatar National Vision 2030.Al-Obaidly added that in Qatar women have achieved great success in all political, economic, social, educational, health and media fields, and certainly in the military and police fields.She believes that Qatari women have achieved great success in this field.Al-Obaidly added that she works in various fields of journalism, investigations, interviews, news coverage and photojournalism, and she convey the hopes, aspirations and concerns of people.[Women's bulletin prepared by Qatar News Agency (QNA) in co-operation with the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA).]