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Telling the story of every woman...

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By Vani Saraswathi

It is always tricky to interview a journalist. How do you throw ques-tions at someone who is used to asking them? Yet, it was easy with

Shahnaz Pakravan. From the word go, she puts the lensman and me at ease.

She hesitates for a second about being photographed looking a little tired after a long night’s work, and then quickly fresh-ens up, sporting a smile that countered perfectly the lack of make-up.

The interview was not about questions, but choosing issues and discussing them. Something on the lines of what she plans to do on Everywoman, a programme she will present from Doha on Al Jazeera International, twice a week.

She is a prominent figure in Middle Eastern and British media circles, through her work with the BBC and ITN, including Arab World Direct and Tomorrow’s World.

Everywoman will be the first show of its kind out of the Middle East to put women’s issues at its core. The magazine format and global agenda promises an exciting mix of challenging and incisive journalism with stories coming from Al Jazeera International’s broadcast centres around the world. Shahnaz and her team will bring viewers around the world stories that have universal appeal with subjects as diverse and sensitive as religion, society, sex, education and arts, all from women’s perspectives.

From western perception of the hijab to temporary marriages in Afghanistan, Woman Today chats with Pakravan on why Everywoman will be a unique pro-gramme for and about women.

As she posed for the camera, she non-

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chalantly says that she is closing 50. Sur-prising – for one, even the most confident of women hesitate to talk about their age, and here she was just stating it without being asked. And for another, it would have been difficult to guess her age.

After doing programmes that were not particularly women-related – tech-nology, health, current affairs... how would you tackle a programme that is so different?Television is Television... it is about communication, whether you are talk-ing about technology, human rights, women’s rights, health... Everywoman is going to talk about technology, but it will talk about women and the internet, about how it helps them... That’s where it becomes synergetic and one. That’s where what I have done before is going to help.

My mother – a diplomat in Pakistan, though she spent most of her life as a non-diplomat, and as an educator – is a very strong woman. She was a cam-paigner. We grew up in a household where discussions on women’s rights were frequent. We grew up with this kind of a role model. Now, a programme like Everywoman, is about everybody – half the population of the world. It is about everything we ever sit and discuss. It is a part of life. Who am I for this programme? I am just a little lynch pin hearing the different stories – be it from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Italy.

What do I have to do to prepare for a programme like Everywoman? Nothing. Just be me. Talk to people and hear their stories... So is it different?

It’s the way we’ll approach things that will set Everywoman apart. We’ll dig deeper to uncover those stories that face the most resistance hoping to give a voice to those who don’t have one.

How involved will you be in the stories from different countries. Are you looking at breaking stereotypes? Giv-ing a different take on women from a region, than as perceived elsewhere?Let’s put it this way – we are not going to shy away from the controversial. We are going to be uncompromising. We are

going to be strong, entertaining, punchy – we want the real people who have something to say.

I had a discussion with the editor of the programme, who comes from a criti-cally acclaimed programme, Woman’s Hour in the UK. And we took a subject of men taking women as wives for 24 hours. And there is a hue and cry about it. But, this is not new. It has been hap-pening for centuries. It is not Islamic, just because men in Iran or Afghanistan

are taking women for 24 hours... Islam is not to be blamed for that. Christian-ity had it then, and what they were called was courtesans. Women bartered then, and they do it now. It is not about a religious practice. So it will be about breaking stereotypes. If it happens to be controversial, we will not be shying away from those issues. But it is not for us to take a moral high-ground.

We would like to cover the entire region, and will look for stories from different countries – Pakistan, India, Afghanistan... Say, if we were doing one on domestic violence or honour killing, it will not be from a particular country. We will look at cases from all over, and the statistics will be worldwide.

And yes, we will have journalists from that country doing the story, but that doesn’t mean I am not going to go to those places... I am from the Arab world, I am from Iran, I grew up in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I have also been in UK... I am a child of the world.

I am not going to be standing in a stu-dio and saying ‘hello and welcome and good bye’, and be a mouthpiece. I am going to be involved in the whole pro-gramme. If I am going to Pakistan, then I am not going to be a stranger going in there and doing a story. I have lived there and know the place; I will work with people who live there.

Of course, we will commission stories from people on the ground, in the area, because those are the best stories.

How would a story on the ‘hijab’ be treated, for instance? The Arab women see it as their choice, the Western women see it as a restraint.We were discussing this very thing the other day. We intend to those stories. Yes, it is about choices. You go a young Emirati girl and ask her why she is wear-ing the ‘hijab’, she will tell you: feminin-ity, security... they love it. Who are we to question it? You might ask why a western educated 21-year old wears a sheyla and abhaya – it is because they love it.

We want to hear it from the women why they do or do not wear it. I have heard it so often from the women, that they are wearing it because it is their sense of identity at work and outside. Some years ago, I did a programme for BBC, and I had an Emirati girl talk about Ramadan, and she was in sheyla and abhaya, in front of the camera. It was revolutionary.

How will Everywoman appeal to the western woman?

My first role modelMy mother, Maryam Bahnam. I disagreed with my mother for many, many years; but once I made my peace with her, I truly, truly admire her. How much spirit and energy can you have at 86. She has written three books so far (And I am dreading her plans for the fourth, as I end up typing all of it.) She is a great lady.

When I sometimes get depressed or upset and call her up, she says ‘I don’t know what you have got to complain about.’ Then she will tell the old tales of what it was like growing up in Iran in the 1920s. She was not allowed to go to school. Her brothers were, though they were not as intel-ligent as her. They would tie her up and put her on top of the cupboard, and forget that she was there. Finally, they brought a psychologist all the way from Paris, as they felt there was something wrong with this girl who insists she wants to be educated. She was a woman before her time. The doctor spent half an hour with her and turned to her parents said, ‘She is an energetic woman, not sick. She is not mentally deficient, but has too much of it, so let her go.’ But let her go where? In the Iran of 1920s...”

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This programme should be watched not only by women. In fact, it is critical that men watch it too. People will be curious, as not enough is known about who we are. Do our children have mobile phones? Do they have access to the internet? Does technology play an important part in the way we bring up our children? These are issues we will cover in the programme: the hijab, relationships, marriages, mixed marriages, expats marrying into Gulf families.

There is a thirst for knowledge, there is curiosity. If we can let the stories – the thought process – come from the real people, then we would have succeeded. Not so much bridging the gap, but show-ing the west who we are. How they will perceive it and how they will receive it? Let’s have this conversation in six months time. When we are on air...

We have people saying Muslim women are second class citizens and walk behind their men, and we will show them that that is not true. There are billionaire Arab women who run their own businesses; we will take you to UAE, Oman, Qatar...show women who are cabinet members, decision-makers. It will be our job to get the representation... and then let’s see.

Equally interesting is the perception, in the region, of what women in the west are like.Yes. And personally, you know what? I think western women have lost a lot in last 30-40 years. Yes, they have got independence, or the right to vote. Yet, something about the family got lost, something about the identity of being a woman got lost. And we still have got

that here. This is almost an answer to your previous question; that it will be very fascinating for western women to see that those in the east are proactive, that they are campaigning. Take Sheikha Mozah... what better role model do you want. There is Queen Rania in Jordan, Princess Haya in UAE. This would not have been heard of a decade ago, or even as recently as seven years ago.

You come from a democratic nation (India) which has been pushing the boundaries for much longer. But these are smaller nations, and yet we have got so many women at the helm. This is great and would be interesting to the west.

If we say that Arab women are getting

increasingly empowered, and then look at statistics from Europe or US, we may come up with some staggering results.

But there have been comments that women in the Arab world, particularly in the GCC, are losing focus, due to increasing affluence.Of course these societies are changing, how can they not. You can’t get some-thing, without giving up some other things. This balance for the women in the region is a tricky balance.

Once you start educating women, then they are not going to want to sit back and just wait to get married, are they?

That already poses a dilemma for the men. Now they are dealing with a whole different ball game already – women who are educated, and economically they want to input something into the society, what is wrong with that?

Now they have to get the balance right. Why, even western women struggled with it. You still have women in London screaming and shouting how they can be superwomen, and be good mothers too.

I do it myself. I am racked with guilt – I have two teenage daughters. How am I going to be a good mother, and work, and be a good role model and not lose out on all of these responsibilities. We are women, and we just have to do it. We have done it for centuries and we will continue doing it for centuries.

The accusation is not against working women alone, but those who stay at home, yet have no time for family.Things will change when they see their peers being productive. There will be pos-

The best interview There is a wonderful man in Saudi Arabia whom I interviewed for the first anniversary of 9/11 for the programme Arab World Direct: Prince Abdulla bin Faisal bin Turki Al Saud. I had met him two or three times. He is the kind of person who can make you change your preconceived ideas, that you may have about people or countries. I admire him greatly.

Waiting to interviewI would love to interview Iranian human rights activist and lawyer Shirin Abadi, who is also a Nobel Peace Prize. I haven’t met her, and it is an admiration that comes from afar. For everything she has done and achieved.

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itive reinforcement by their peer groups. There is Sheikha Mozah who is not sit-ting behind and letting the years roll by, but is involved in building something. Guilt is an overpowering emotion amongst most working mothers, isn’t it?Yes. Quite frankly I cannot imagine being a woman at home. I would be a terrible mother. I am still learning, but I think I have got the balance right. I think they are proud of what they see me do. When I do some disturbing reports, I come back and discuss it with them. Show them what I have done... they know my world.

I think what you have to do is that your children have to become a part of the world you are in. And then they respect you. If mother put in 18 hours at work, and still found time to come

and pick you up from school and kiss you goodnight, but ran back off to the editing suite, then the next morning they are up and hugging and kissing you, not punishing you.

It is about time management. I don’t know if women will ever stop feeling guilty... that’s part of our nature.

My daughters are 12 and 15. They are my friends... and we do have our argu-ments. They live and study in Dubai. I think there is another important differ-ence between the west and us.

The extended family, that support mechanism, is critical to working women not feeling guilty. The grandmother, the aunty... Knowing that no matter what, the family is always there. The major-ity of my family lives in Dubai. This extended family is what we enjoy here in the Arab world, in Asia...

What is it that women in the region tend to slip up on?This is critical – if our girls have sought the education that their predecessors had to fight for tooth and nail, they should not squander the opportunity. They should take it forward, not compromise. Absolutely no compromises.

What does this shift, from a western media to an Arab-based one, mean to you?As I reach the half century mark, with great pride I should add, for me to get a chance to front a programme like Every-woman, to be involved in a programme, not just be a face of it, at this stage of my life, is like manna from heaven. Every op-portunity is an opportunity to grab...

After all the years of doing everything, you end up in the part of the world you are from, working for an international channel, that is carrying the perspective of our region to the entire world - it is perfect.

Are you confident that in an Arab-based channel, you will be able to give an honest, and not always positive take on Arab women.Honest? I wouldn’t do anything but.

Positive spin? Why would we do that? If we are talking about infertility and the bias against women in the Arab world, how can that be positive? I don’t want to be the spokesperson that says anything. I want to be the connection, to giving the opportunity to salute and celebrate women who are successes, or go to others and say ‘tell us what’s the story’.

And when not working?My kids ride, and I go with them. I enjoy riding. I love reading and writing. But I am a workaholic. I have a small team working with me, and they do refer to me as a slave-driver, but, they also add that I am a motivator.

I love working – which is not neces-sarily good. I tell myself, if I could learn to sit on a sofa, put my feet up, and not move – Not Possible!! I have probably done it three times in my life

A former news presenter on BBC World, BBC News 24 and news anchor for Channel Four’s daily breakfast news and business programme Channel Four Daily as well as Dubai Televi-sion, Pakravan has also anchored and reported for the BBC’s flagship science and technology programme Tomorrow’s World, fronted the criti-cally acclaimed Channel Four Health programme Health Alert and produced and presented Arab World Direct for BBC World. Her radio work has included hosting BBC Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour.

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