An all-female radio program in Pakistan is giving a new voice to the country's airwaves while sticking to their motto...no recipes and no beauty tips. Correspondent Aryn Baker takes us behind the scenes at one show that's unlike anything Pakistanis have ever heard before. [The radio show, “Meri Awaz Suno” (“Hear My Voice”) is produced through a partnership between the Pakistani NGO Uks and Internews and is funded by the US Agency for International Development.]

Audio of the program

Written Transcript:

Announcer: Military dictators are rarely credited with liberalizing their country’s media laws, but Pakistan’s president General Pervez Musharraf did just that. Musharraf opened Pakistan’s airwaves to private broadcasters three years ago. It was never to combat the growing dominance of international satellite broadcasts. Well now TV and radio stations in Pakistan are challenging the monopoly and monotony of the country’s state-owned media.

Erin Baker takes us behind the scenes at one show that’s unlike anything Pakistanis have ever heard before.

(Women’s voices in the background)

Baker: These are the producers of a twice weekly radio program called “Meri Awaz Suno” or “Hear My Voice.” They’re trickling in to their weekly editorial meeting.

(Urdu)

Baker: These journalists tackle some of Pakistan’s most sensitive subjects – drug abuse, child labor, honor killings, AIDS and Islamic law. Not only are these journalists breaking taboos, but they’re doing so in a reporting style that has never been heard before in Pakistan. Meri Awaz Suno sounds somewhat like public radio programs in America. It uses descriptive writing, sound and interviews with experts and everyday people. And there are live panel discussions. It’s all a far cry from the canned readings that typify most Pakistani news broadcasts.

Producers Sara Farid and Bushra Iqbal slip effortlessly between Urdu and English as they discuss an upcoming feature about socialite Musarrat Misbah’s efforts to help acid burn victims.

Iqbal: I’m going to do a story with “Smile Again” acid burn victims as Musarrat Misbah provides the cosmetic surgery to the acid burn victims.

Farid: The therapist told me - on one hand the burn victim is news on how she suffered and what happened and then how is Musarrat Misbah helping her.

Baker: You will notice that Iqbal and Farid are women. That makes them a rarity in a country where less than 3 percent of journalists are female but at Meri Awaz Suno women journalists are the rule. In fact, the staff is 100% female. Rafia Arshad was one of the original producers of Meri Awaz Suno. She says the program’s all women staff raises a lot of eyebrows.

Arshad: Here people always think that, “How women can run a program?” “How they can do everything?” “You are doing this and you don’t need any man?” It’s amazing!

Baker: Meri Awaz Suno focuses on women’s issues but the program’s unofficial motto is “no recipes and no beauty tips.” Producer Sara Farid says Meri Awaz Suno will take on any other topic though with some consideration for Pakistani sensitivities.

Farid: You need to understand this society when you talk about something. For instance, it would much easier to talk about abortion in US but it’s tricky in Pakistan. And there was a time when you could not even say the word “pregnant” on air. But now on our program we talk about pregnancy, we talk about contraception, we talk about menopause…

Baker: And they talk about violence against women. That’s what interested the producers in Musarrat Misbah’s work on behalf of women who had been victims of acid burn attacks. Producer Bushra Iqbal is on the story. She takes her microphone and her minidisk recorder to Misbah’s beauty salon.

(Salon background noise)

Misrah: This is P. She was my first acid burn victim. She’s had thirteen operations. She doesn’t look normal at all but at least she can see. Can you see? This is all burnt.

Baker: Iqbal does not pretend to maintain a journalistic distance from her subject.

Iqbal: I strongly believe that we should tell everybody this is what’s going on and this is how it hurts. It might stop some of the bad feelings of some of the bad people. Documenting an issue means that at least you just put a seed in the soil and it will grow and flower.

Baker: She plants that seed on a program a few weeks later.

(Music and Urdu)

Iqbal: I am Bushra Iqbal and you’re listening to the program Meri Awaz Suno. On Meri Awaz Suno, we talk on issues concerned with women and today we will about women who are set on fire through various means like acid throwing, burning or boiling water. In near past in Lahore a step has been taken to provide reconstructive surgery to women. The project is known as “Smile Again.”

Baker: That story reached a substantial audience. Meri Awaz Suno is broadcast on eleven radio stations across Pakistan. Producer Sara Farid says she wants the audience to be moved, not only by the individual stories, but by the program itself.

Farid: I want it to be a role model. That when women listen to it, and even men, they listen to it and they get to know that we are doing all the technical stuff as well and going into the field and doing recording and should be an inspiration to all the women out there. And they should feel so good about it that they will want to be a part of it.

Baker: But so far at least they’ve only been a part of it until they have gotten married. Married women in Pakistan are expected to give up their careers. That’s why producer Rafia Arshad had to leave the program.

Arshad: Meri Awaz Suno is very good for female’s independence. They are becoming more energetic, more confident, no doubt. But you know in our society people think the first priority for a female is her home and her children.

Baker: The other women of Meri Awaz Suno don’t dwell on what marriage might bring. Producer Sara Farid, for example, tries to look on the bright side. She says she has a rare opportunity for a woman in Pakistan - to make a difference in society. And she says being a woman journalist does have its advantages.

Farid: All men cannot reach women in our society. Women can reach men but there are certain women, they don’t let men come in their houses. But we have an edge, we can go there. And we have an extra edge because men don’t have any problems and you know we do by females so we can come aboard with the story.

Baker: And that’s the style of journalism that few Pakistanis are used to hearing.

For the world this is Erin Baker, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.