How Cultural Norms Impede Writing Stories on Women — Salaudeen
By Hassan Umar Shallpella
CNN Africa features producer and multimedia journalist Aisha Salaudeen has identified some cultural norms in society as major impediments to writing stories on issues that affect women.
Explaining that the general nature of most cultures is such that a woman will rarely come forward to share opinions on issues, she asked journalists to have the passion for intentionally writing about women as well as including women sources in their stories.
Salaudeen also said that with most stories told from the male perspective, there was a dire absence of gender balance in most of the news today. Adding that there were different obstacles from daily life and society for women already, she stressed it was important to document and present the stories of even more women.
“Women Journalists have a wrong notion that writing a story about women has to be on a specific topic. They are looking at it from the wrong angle, it is not always about specifically addressing the women issues, but finding a gender angle where woman will be a source of a story.”
She stressed that giving women a voice was incredibly key to improving the journalistic standards in society.
“In some cultures, it is difficult to find a woman that will come out and speak, it will become hard to write about the women, is one of the challenges faced by Journalists” Salaudeen added.
This story is part of a series highlighting the work of journalists who participated in TechHer’s Gender Reporting for Media Professionals Workshop. Find out more about Hassan Umar Shallpella.
