Women's Media Union

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Women's Media Union
Established28 June 2020  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg (5 years ago)
Types organization   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Aim gender equality, journalism   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Membership500 (2025)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Women's Media Union (YRJ) is an association of women journalists in north-eastern Syria created in June 2020. [1] [2]

Contents

Creation

According to Arîn Sweid (or Swed [3] ), a spokeperson of YRJ, women's involvement in media in north-eastern Syria increased significantly during the Syrian civil war following the July–August 2012 People's Protection Units (YPG) military takeover of the region. Women media workers in the region held conferences in 2014, 2016 and 2020. [1] The participatns of the 28 June 2020 conference, with 86 delegates, decided to establish the Women's Media Union (YRJ), with the goals of bypassing authoritarian governments' repression of women and women's points of view and of "delivering the voice and truth of a free woman to all parts of the world" to help women to "play their leadership role in building the system and a free and democratic society." [2]

Aims and activities

Arîn Sweid stated that the YRJ viewed women participating in media institutions as insufficient to achieve equality for women in the media, since particular usages of language and style continued to support patriarchy. Sweid called for women media workers in the wider Middle East region to coordinate in opposing misogyny in their media. [1]

Sweid stated that the YRJ "defends all female media workers against sexist and psychological attacks". She stated that it supported Cîhan Bilgin following threatening phone calls from the Turkish National Intelligence Organization. Bilgin was killed in a targeted Turkish air attack in December 2024, along with another Kurdish reporter, Nazim Daştan. [3]

According to Sweid, media coverage of the Turkish attacks on the Tishreen Dam by Hawar News Agency was continued by women journalists of the YRJ after Bilgin's death. [3]

Leadership and membership

Newroz Demhat was a member of the YRJ Executive Board as of June 2025. [4] Arîn Sweid was a spokesperson of YRJ in 2023 [1] and 2025. [4]

At its creation in 2020, YRJ had a council of 31 people. [1]

By its fifth anniversary in June 2025, YRJ stated that its membership included 500 journalists. [4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "YRJ spokesperson calls for adopting unified vision about women's issues". Hawar News Agency . 21 April 2023. Wikidata   Q135116179. Archived from the original on 29 June 2025.
  2. 1 2 "YRJ founded during conference of Women's Media Union". Hawar News Agency . 30 June 2020. Wikidata   Q135116159. Archived from the original on 29 June 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 Chloé Troadec; Angéline Desdevises (3 April 2025), The Kurdish journalists being targeted in Syria, Index on Censorship, Wikidata   Q135115663, archived from the original on 29 June 2025
  4. 1 2 3 "YRJ celebrates its 5th anniversary". Firat News Agency . 29 June 2025. Wikidata   Q135116189. Archived from the original on 29 June 2025.
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