On the Record

Website: www.iwmf.org Website: E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: Fax (202) 496-1977 (202) Fax Tel. (202) 496-1992 (202) Tel. Washington, DC 20006 DC Washington, 1625 K Street, NW, Suite 1275 Suite NW, Street, K 1625 Foundation Media Women’s International on the record “Journalists, by their very nature, represent the ultimate strength of an open society as well as its ultimate vulnerability.” Judea Pearl, father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl International Women’s Media Foundation Strengthening the Role of Women in the IWMFwire News Media Worldwide In This Issue 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 Former Courage Leadership, Updates on Board IWMF Honors 2006 IWMF Co-sponsors IWMF Names New World Update Winner Killed in Maisha Yetu Members, Courage Courage Awardees Panel Discussion Board Members Opportunities Russia Journalists Awardees Recognized March 2007 volume 17 no. 1 IWMF’s Upcoming Programs A Close-up Shot of the War in Iraq IWMF’s Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow has personal insight from working as a reporter in Iraq Elizabeth Neuffer Forum The 2007 Elizabeth Neuffer By Peggy Simpson Forum on Human Rights and Journalism will be held from hen Huda Ahmed U.S. policies, of mistakes made over and 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 29 was named the again, not just in Iraq, but also in Palestine at the John F. Kennedy Presi- IWMF’s 2006-07 and Lebanon. She wants to “understand dential Library in Boston. The Elizabeth Neuffer the point of view of the American govern- theme is “Women and Islam: Fellow, her mother ment, with Iraq and the whole Middle Understanding and Reporting.” Wtold her to “keep this happiness in your East,” she said, beyond promises about For more information visit: heart” in order to “keep your head on democracy and human rights. www.iwmf.org/programs/ your shoulder.” neuffer/forum.php. Ahmed worked as a translator for more Ahmed, an Iraqi reporter, accepts this real- than a decade before becoming a 2007 Leadership Institute ity. Many of her cousins have been kid- reporter in 2004. During the job transi- The fourth annual Leadership napped or shot to death, targeted because tion, the dangers facing both reporters Institute for Women Journalists they worked for foreign companies. She and translators and the turmoil con- will be held in July. For more knows at least five translators or drivers fronting ordinary Iraqis also shifted. information or for an applica- who have been killed for the same reason. tion, visit www.iwmf.org/ In the early days of the Iraq war, it was programs/leadership. “The cards are shuffled here,” she said. easy to get interviews with insurgents, “You don’t know who’s your enemy, even to go to their homes for the inter- Courage in Journalism Awards who’s your friend. And it’s hard to know views. “They wanted the media to convey The 2007 Courage in Journal- how to solve this.” their point of view,”Ahmed said. ism Awards will be held Oct. 23 in New York and Oct. 30 in So Ahmed especially looked forward to Today, she said, insurgents look at trans- Los Angeles. A discussion with her fellowship, which allows her to study lators and reporters as prey. “They want the Courage recipients will be at the Massachusetts Institute of to just kill you.” held Oct. 25 in Washington, Technology and other Boston-area uni- DC. To learn more about the versities, and possibly spend time at the “If I say I work for an international agency, Courage Awards, visit Boston Globe or New York Times. they say ‘they’ll pay thousands and thou- www.iwmf.org/courage. sands of dollars for you…You’re a good Ahmed is learning more about U.S. goals catch.’ I say,‘No, I’m worth nothing because for Iraq and the Middle East. From the I’m a local. They won’t pay you anything.’” Arab street, she heard only the negatives of continued on page 2 Huda Ahmed Profile continued from page 1 Life on the street has become extraordi- report on the people she knew best, English on the street or on her home narily dangerous, prompting a backlash “their desires, their fears,” to tell “what telephone. from Iraqis who say “they don’t want horrible times they’ve been through. And democracy and freedom anymore. They their hope.” Still, she holds out hope. After her fellow- long for security…They want to have a ship, Ahmed hopes to return to Iraq and life like people in other countries, to take Ahmed said her bosses welcomed her eventually cover other Middle Eastern their children to school and protect ideas and her initiative. She began to countries. She also vows to keep tracking them….There is huge frustration. They write about Iraqi women seeking their the region’s women’s rights activists. can’t trust the police or the Parliament rights and interviewed women’s rights or their own neighbors.” activists from other countries. She wrote Eventually, Ahmed said, she wants to about widows and children stranded publish “an Iraqi newspaper in English Ahmed is one of seven children from a with no economic base after their hus- and Arabic and Kurdish. And I hope it Shi’a family. Her father encouraged her bands died in the conflict or were will be an international paper.” to read widely in literature, politics and gunned down by insurgents. She wrote history. Ahmed got a degree in languages about Iraqi policemen and their isola- When Ahmed received the call telling from Baghdad University in 1992, but tion. “Because the insurgents are tracking her that she had won the Elizabeth because of the harsh sanctions following them, they can’t go to restaurants and eat Neuffer Fellowship, it was midnight in the 1991 Gulf war, left Iraq and worked like everyone else. Their presence is a Iraq. She started shouting, waking up as a translator in the United Arab danger for others.” her entire family. Then, her mother Emirates, Tunisia and Libya. With her hushed her. “Don’t be stupid,” she said. father ailing, she and a brother took Ahmed also began to cover the militias “Don’t speak English on the phone.” charge of supporting the family, and she and their role in society and to write sent much of her income back home. about the sectarian standoffs that began This brought Ahmed back to her day- to be a dominant factor in Iraq. to-day reality. It also saddened her. When Ahmed visited Iraq in 2002, she But it failed to undermine her enthu- was trapped by the start of the current “Before, we used to have no problem siasm. She is eagerly interacting with war. She began translating for The between the sects; the Shi’as and the people from all over the world and Washington Post and then Knight Ridder. Sunni lived together…And now, in working on reporting and writing. three or four years, this hostility has But simply winning the fellowship She got a sense of what journalists come from nowhere and nailed us fulfilled an ambition of Ahmed’s. considered a good story idea and saw down,” she said. how their stories changed as they “This is my life’s dream,” she said. I made it into print. “I watched, Ahmed said Iraqis have a horrible life through our interviews, what they do and called Baghdad “a dead city.” She Peggy Simpson is a freelance writer based and how they asked questions, how does not see the current situation as an in Washington, DC. they phrased them and what they opportunity to rebuild Iraq. Instead, she focused on,” she said. said, “I think we are losers today.” Elizabeth Neuffer Forum “I had an eagerness inside me that I want Ahmed has developed techniques to sur- Huda Ahmed will be one of the pan- elists at the Elizabeth Neuffer Forum on to write,” she said. Under Saddam vive the danger she faces each day. She Human Rights and Journalism, which Hussein, writing was too perilous for her shows up early or late but never at the will be held March 29 in Boston. For family. She had written overseas for some appointed time for an interview with a more information about the Elizabeth Arab publications. But, with Hussein and militia leader. She keeps her job secret Neuffer Forum or fellowship, visit his police state gone, she wanted to from most people. And she never speaks http://www.iwmf.org/programs/neuffer 2 March 2007 IWMFwire Courage Award Winner Killed; IWMF Calls for Justice nna Politikovskaya, who won an IWMF Courage in Read a bio of Politkovskaya Journalism Award in 2002 when she won the Courage for her unrelenting Award: http://www.iwmf.org/ reporting on Russian courage/02award.php# Asociety – particularly the war in politkovskaya Chechnya – was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment Oct. 7, 2006. See Politkovskaya’s Courage acceptance speech: Outraged at her murder and the threat to http://www.iwmf.org/ press freedom in Russia, the IWMF sent press/9498 a letter to Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, and encouraged those in its net- Help support journalists work to do the same. Politikovskaya was like Politkovskaya: also recognized during the IWMF’s http://www.iwmf.org/ Courage in Journalism Award ceremonies network/support in October and November. The IWMF co-sponsored a candlelight vigil in her memory on Oct. 16 out- protecting human rights in Russia. “The need to risk is part of the profes- side the Russian Federation’s Embassy Participants included Amnesty sion here,” Politkovskaya said in her to the United States.

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