Honor Killings Stalk Women in Journalism

Michael Hedges June 11, 2007

Three times in two weeks women working in journalism in the Middle East were reported murdered. The killings are a gruesome reminder that for the many and significant steps forward for journalism in the region; it remains in the grip of cultural antiquities and fear.

Shakiba Sanga Amaj, a 22 year old presenter and reporter for private Afghan station Shamshad TV, was shot and killed at her family home in Kabul May 31st. Authorities arrested a suspect, a hit-man apparently hired by family members angered by a spurned marriage proposal. She was shot in the back.

Her father told the Pajwok news agency, quoted by Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) that the suspect is “a hired killer and a deviant.”

Pashtu language Shamshad TV was launched in March 2006.

As she slept in her Jabal Saraj district house the night of June 5th, Peace Radio director Zakia Zaki was assassinated. Conflicting reports place two or three intruders with automatic weapons at the scene. Ms Zaki was also a noted human rights activist, director of a local high school for girls and mother of six children. Jabal Saraj is in Parwan province about 60 kilometers north of Kabul.

“Journalism is always dangerous in this country,” said VOA reporter Abdul Hai Warshan, “especially if you are a woman. The extremists do not like women who work.”  Warshan visited Ms Zaki’s home following the murder.

Peace Radio (Sada-i-Sulh) was founded in 2002 with grants-in-aid from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and associated with the Internews-supported network of 32 Afghan radio stations. Ms Zaki received death threats beginning the day Peace Radio was launched, according to a 2002 RSF release.

Iraqi journalist Sahar Hussein al-Haideri was gunned down June 7th as she waited for a taxi near her home in Mosul. She was a prominent reporter for the Voices of Iraq news agency. She had recently sent her family out of Iraq because of concerns for their safety.

With sad irony al-Haideri had recently reported on the honor killing stoning of a young Iraqi woman.

“Women journalists have demonstrated particular tenacity and bravery in Afghanistan, Iraq, Uzbekistan and other Islamic countries,” said Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) executive director Anthony Borden, “ reporting on the human costs of conflict and the efforts of mostly male-dominated power structures to undermine democracy.”

The Reuters Foundation developed voice of Iraq (Aswat al Iraq) in 2005 with assistance from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI). It is entirely staffed by Iraqi journalists.

The BBC reported (June 7) that six men associated with a local warlord had been arrested for the crime.

In February last year al-Arabiya reporter Atwar Bahjat was murdered along with her production crew shortly after filing a report from Samarra, Iraq. According to a surviving crewmember, the gunmen shouted, “We want the anchorwoman” before dragging her and the two crewmembers away.

Atwar Bahjat had been covering the Al Askari Mosque bombing; an event some believe exacerbated sectarian violence in Iraq.

In 2005 young Iraqi TV presenter Shaima Rezai was murdered in her home. Two of her brothers were arrested for the crime, suggested to be an honor killing. Some Afghan authorities described her killing as a suicide even though severely beaten and shot in the forehead.-

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