We recently met Nahed Bashatah, a well-known journalist and columnist in some of the Kingdom’s Arabic newspapers. It was an interesting look at the mind and emotions of an Arab woman who wants to keep her identity as a career woman without sacrificing any of her traditions or social customs.
Nahed has a bachelor’s degree in social work from King Saud University and is at present working on her masters in anthropology from Ain Shams University of Egypt. She is married with four children.
She cites some reasons why many women journalists do not get satisfaction from writing. She says that few women are acknowledged as writers but are often relegated to being reporters. Nahed feels that this keeps a woman writer from achieving her aims and forces her to become a “reporter” rather than a writer.
Nahed recently won two prestigious awards in her field. The first was the Arab Journalism Award from Dubai Press Club. This was given for her piece “Violence Against Arab Women.” Her investigations into this story were based on the lives of Arab women in general and not only on personal interviews.
The second award came from the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research in Tunis for her article entitled “The Future of Women.” In this article she surveyed the views of Arab women on their future plans and expectations as professionals and contributors to the development of their nations.
Nahed was quick to defend her methods of investigative writing by saying that, contrary to some opinions, she believes in basing her pieces on facts before putting together her own ideas on the subject.
She began her journalistic career with a single article sent to a local newspaper in 1986. “I became what is referred to as a professional journalist in 1995 with Al-Jazirah. I had a column which appeared three times a week. Women and their affairs were my primary concerns and I tried to discuss them as much as possible. My idea was to help women learn about what is available to them but which they may be unaware of — laws and rights according to the Shariah and Islam. It is difficult when women do not know what they have and how to use it.
“Being recognized and achieving satisfaction as a writer means being in control of my creations! A woman writer cannot always move easily from the usual topics dealing with women and children to hospitals and ministries and localized news items.”
Nahed devotes a great deal of her time and ability to her own website (www.nahed.net) and to the children’s page she has created in a local magazine. “I want to develop some media for children where they contribute and learn on their own. Too many children’s pages are run by adults who have their points of view and ideas which they want to convey to the children. I think children know best their wants and needs and have their opinions on ‘children-based’ topics and areas of interest.”
Nahed writes every week in Asharq Al-Awsat where she deals with women’s issues. “I feel strongly that the achievements of our women should be publicized and their changing roles and contributions made known. Doing so is a means of encouragement to women here who are actually making effective contributions in the areas of education, medicine, social work, technology.”