Working for the media in Iraqi Kurdistan Region IKR is full of challenges especially for women. For me it was twice tough as a beginner. My story tells how hard it is for a woman to join the media world.
Despite all hardships, I went on. I kept pushing myself saying I am a tough woman, brave and persistent. I urged my soul to keep going alike others and leave behind all accusations, traps and all types of obstacles yet the road was thorny.
I was enthusiastically working for a radio station, presenting a morning show. In an autumn day of 2019, my boss stormed my room. He was very tense and asked me to meet him in his room.
He showed me a message delivered to our station Facebook account. "You have a presenter called Marziya, please let her contact me if she is still working for you." He asked me if I know the sender and I said no. I had no idea who it was.
He told me you are lying and I was shocked. All this happened in a sudden and I was really confused. The discussion went very tense. He told me in a snobbish way that "you wil distort the image of the station by your behaviour."
He as my male boss was thinking that I as a female employee have to listen to his words literally as a kid. He saved the chat in his phone. He said he will install CCTV in my room in order to check how I am spending the day.
He dismissed me. I was wondering why a message from Facebook should generate all these suspicions.
You will distort the image of the station by your such behaviour
I believe workplace is not where only you carry out your duties as much as it should be a place that emotionally supports you especially for journalists who all the time face criticism and attacked by their political opponents and even ordinary listeners.
For me it was completely the opposite. I was attacked for unknown reason. I was shocked, burst crying and left the station.
I was waiting for the support of my boss because I had no idea who is the sender. I thought he will advise me to be careful as someone might be chasing me. On the contrary, he pushed me to feel so bad.
The incident was just like an earthquake that shook my life since I have not expected such a reaction. I thought women are supported in the media in order to keep working. I realized the boss was mixing his tension into our daily work.
One of the problems of working in a media outlet is absence of employment contract between the staff and the institution in order to define the duties and the privileges. Some outlets do define all the duties in a contract in order to suppress its staff under legal obligations.
When there is no any kind of contract or bond, each owner or director has the right to annoy and attack his employees per his mood.
Who was the sender?
Later, I found out the sender was a colleague who was living abroad. He wanted to contact me via my stations Facebook account because I have change mine.
Working in the media as a woman and particularly in Garmiyan region, is tiresome which requires support and cooperation from men in order to urge women to join media field in the region not to be accused of something silly in order to leave and quit.
That incident was a blow to me and I lost the job which I was very pleased to do because I was working in my field which was also one of my interests. The negative impact of my story is still haunting me. I was so afraid to write this story that I decided to write it under a pseudonym.
It was not only. A female colleague was mistreated and obliged to leave by the same boss. She has chosen to keep silent.
This form of abuse of power and harassment against journalists in the media inside their institutions is another type of restriction for freedom of expression and press.
