Our Women on the Ground

June 17, 2019
Lebanese-British journalist Hankir compiles essays by 19 female reporters from across the Middle East, including Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Palestine, and Egypt. Some are veteran journalists, others just emerging in their fields. Many risked their lives at the centers of conflict zones, such as Hannah Allam, who focused on the “tragic and resilient Iraqi women, a metaphor for the country itself” while covering the Iraq War for McClatchy Newspapers, and Nour Malas, who reported on the Syrian refugee crisis as she grappled with her Syrian identity and the destruction of her ancestral homeland. Others offer cultural critiques: Eman Helal chronicles sexual harassment in Egypt; Donna Abu Nasr evokes the changing state of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia (“when I saw women selling underwear” in Riyadh, she writes, “I choked up”); and Amira Al-Sharif describes her “unusual situation” as a single female photographer in her 30s, working in her native Yemen, where photography is a “man’s job” and most Yemenis get married in their teens. Offering a blend of memoir, war reporting, cultural commentary, history, and politics, these powerful essays deliver insightful analysis of the upheavals in the Middle East from committed and skilled writers. Agent: Jessica Papin, Dystel, Goderich and Bourret.

June 15, 2019
A collection of essays by dedicated journalists on the many hurdles they face as women in the field of Middle Eastern newsgathering--edited by Lebanese British journalist Hankir and introduced by CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour. In many cases, these conflict-zone reporters were inspired to become journalists due to heart-rending stories among their own families and friends. "To become a journalist in some of these places takes a special kind of courage for a woman," writes Amanpour. "It can mean defying family and community, and it brings unique challenges and entails sacrifices specific to women." These stories from the field are rare and remarkable, especially because the writers are "twice burdened," according to Hankir: Not only do they hail from places that mistreat women worse than anywhere in the world; they are also "some of the most repressed reporters in the world." The book is divided into five sections: "Remembrances," "Crossfire," "Resilience," "Exile," and "Transition." In "The Woman Question," Hannah Allam, covering the war in Iraq for McClatchy Newspapers, writes of the "unspoken understanding that if you delved too deeply into women's lives, you risked being labeled as soft, or missing the point." A Lebanese journalist covering the wars in the Middle East for American newspapers, Nada Bakri became deeply disenchanted with the profession after the death of her husband and son's father, New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, in Syria in 2012. Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah ("On a Belated Encounter With Gender") recalls the 2011 Arab Spring activism in terms of responding to her father's conflicted feelings about her being a journalist. Egyptian photojournalist Eman Helal writes of being routinely restricted from "hard news" assignments and then finding her story in the harassment of women protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2011. Others, such as photographer Amira Al-Sharif, who was born in Saudi Arabia but raised in Yemen, write that being women allowed them to cover stories that men could not. A timely, engaging work that reveals why the journalist's profession is so important and so endangered.

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Starred review from June 1, 2019
Gathered and edited by Lebanese journalist Hankir, the 19 essays in this collection are remarkable, illuminating stories of the lives of female journalists working in the Arab and Middle Eastern worlds. Their pieces are organized by theme?Remembrances, Crossfire, Resilience, Exile, and Transition?and the writers explore topics like the work of war reporting, doing their jobs in male-dominated spaces, the ways in which being female allowed them access into otherwise closed spaces, and other subjects both professional and personal. Hannah Allam writes about reporting from Iraq in 2003 and the humor and strength of Iraqi women. Nour Malas describes the refugee family she got to know through her reporting in Syria and Germany and the ethical and professional conflict she faced over how much to help. After a foreword by Christiane Amanpour, Hankir writes in her introduction that this is the book she wanted to see, because in its pages women can tell their own stories. Readers will be moved as each essay reflects both its writer and the people whose stories she reported to the world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 1, 2019

Many readers may not be aware of the large numbers of female reporters currently working in the Arab world. These journalists, who risk their lives to provide an accurate picture of life in a war zone and tell the truth about ongoing conflict in the region, have been brought together in this timely and affecting collection. The essays contain evocative and emotional imagery; the stories shared by these women are heartrending and deeply humanistic. They show the real cost of war as well as the challenges unique to these female reporters, from enduring sexual harassment to navigating laws that mandate a male escort as they travel. VERDICT An emotionally resonant and eminently readable anthology of true accounts that will appeal greatly to readers interested in global women's issues, journalism, and the modern Arab world. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/19.]--Kathleen Dupr�, Edmond, OK

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019

The correspondents covering conflict in the Middle East tend to be Western, and for that matter mostly white and male, but this collection features original, first-person essays by 19 Arab women journalists speaking about their own world.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.