[7]According to Human Rights Watch [8], Iraq remains one of the most dangerous countries to work as a journalist. It is also a hazardous place for many women, with increasingly high rates of gender-based violence [9] including domestic violence, so-called "honor killings," and human trafficking.
In response to this pressing need, IREX’s Women, Justice, and Media in Iraq (WJMI) program [10] is bringing media professionals, women’s rights advocates, and others together to raise awareness of women’s rights across the country. Launched in January 2012, WJMI has already trained hundreds of participants. For example, participating journalists and editors learned about the role of media in combatting GBV, including how to avoid victim-blaming and how to ensure confidentiality for survivors. Using knowledge gained in IREX workshops, participants have gone on to report, blog, and broadcast for local media outlets on incidents of honor killings and other issues in the Kurdistan Region and elsewhere in Iraq.
Haliz Taha Barwari, who headed one of the trainings, commended IREX for bringing journalists together from across the country. “Many Iraqi media outlets and journalists do not have adequate information on women’s rights and the international conventions regarding their rights,” she noted.
WJMI engages other key players in the struggle against GBV, including judges, lawyers, women’s rights activists, and police officers. Government officials, for example, learn how to work with—rather than against—journalists to promote greater public awareness about GBV.
These trainings and discussions are bolstered by two IREX training-of-trainers manuals, Reporting Domestic Violence: Know Your Rights and Understanding Iraqi Legal System and Gender. IREX is translating the manuals from Arabic into English and Kurdish and will make the final tri-lingual version available both in hardcopy and online.
As the media, women’s rights advocates, and the justice sector in Iraq continue to learn from each other and work together, they become an increasingly powerful force for good in the country.
Women, Justice, and Media in Iraq (WJMI) is funded by the Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) [11] and builds on IREX's ongoing Media and Civil Society for Transparent Governance (MCSTG) [12] program in Iraq.