On October 11-13,
2017 a young journalist from Iraq, Haneen Jameel, visited Latvia on a
discussion tour. Meetings and discussions with the journalist were part of the
project “Better News Media” with the aim to raise media literacy among youth
and awareness about asylum seekers, refugees and migration issues in order to
fight racism and intolerance.
Events of the
discussion tour were an opportunity to hear Haneen’s story about her work as a
journalist in Iraq, the reasons why she had to leave her country and seek
refuge in Europe, about integrating in Finland as well as how she sees refugee
stories represented in European media.
On October 11th a
meeting with a few dozen journalism students, lecturers and other interested
people took place at the University of Latvia Faculty of Social Sciences. The
discussion was moderated by Latvian Radio journalist Kārlis Dagilis, who
started off the conversation noting the press and media differences around the
world which are proven by the listing of the World Press Freedom Index[1]
where Finland is third, Latvia is 28th but Iraq takes the 158th place. After
hearing Haneen’s story participants had a chance to ask questions and find out
more about the reactions from her closest people and community after they read
her honest and critical articles on children’s and women’s issues in Iraq, her
family’s endless support, how journalism students in Iraq are taught to avoid
critiquing the government and what she thinks of European media that often tend
to prioritize the number of clicks over the quality of content as well as well
as the rather negative impact social media has nowadays.
Haneen also visited
centre “Marta” - a resource centre for women. This meeting took place on
October 12th and it was an opportunity to share and exchange about the women’s
rights situation in Latvia, Finland and Iraq. Representatives of the centre
told more about the projects and campaigns they implement in Latvia and about
projects carried out together with partners in Central Asia as well as shortly
about the future ideas. During this conversation Haneen revealed that at first
she thought of publishing her articles anonymously but then decided that she
wants to give voice to the voiceless women and be part of the change in society
and published the articles with her name.
Shortly before the
meeting with representatives of “Marta” centre, Haneen gave an exclusive
interview to Latvian Television[2],
where among other things she emphasized how important it is to try to know one
another better, accept and try to understand the cultural differences and
strive to take down the wall of fear and prejudice between asylum seekers and
Europeans. And despite the many negative news regarding refugees in European
media, it is worth remembering that everything is not black or white, that just
like in every society there are good and not so good people among refugees.
Later in the
evening on October 12th, a discussion about asylum seekers, refugees and
migration took place at Kaņepes Kultūras centre. This two-hour long discussion
was moderated by the UNHCR Northern Europe regional office representative
Didzis Melbiksis, who started it with a short introduction of the global
refugee situation and statistics provided by UNHCR[3]. It reveals that at the
moment there are more than 65,5 million displaced people around the world, more
than half of the refugees are younger than 18 years old and almost 85% of all
refugees are taken in by developing countries, e.g. Lebanon, Jordan, Uganda.
The audience of approximately 50 people showed deep interest and asked Haneen
questions about the political situation in Iraq and Middle East, about the
reasons she had to leave Iraq, how she got from Turkey across the Mediterranean
sea to Europe, what are some of the details of immigration system in Finland,
attitude of the locals and Finnish language lessons.
On October 13th
Haneen visited Gulbene gymnasium and met with approximately 80 high school
students and their teachers, who had the rare opportunity to hear an Iraqi
journalist’s story about her life, work and studies in Iraq, why she had to
leave her country and seek refuge in Europe, how she got to Finland and how it
is to start a new life there. Students and teachers asked more about her family
and friends - where and how are they, how difficult or easy it is to get new
friends in Finland, what are some of Haneen’s hobbies, dreams and plans for
future.
At the end of the
discussion tour Haneen was happy to visit the Latvian Parliament house Saeima
and notice the similarities and differences between parliaments in Iraq and
Latvia. Hearing that out of 100 deputies in Saeima 18 are women, Haneen
revealed that there are many women in the Parliament of Iraq, but their impact
is insignificant and mostly formal.
[3] http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/5943e8a34/global-trends-forced-displacement-2016.html - UNHCR statistics of globally displaced
people “Global Trends 2016”
This is very interesting, you are a very skilled blogger.
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