21 MARCH 2018
TAHANI AL-AHAMD, TRAINEE JOURNALIST AT THE WOMEN NOW CENTER IN SARAKIB

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 The Women Now 

The war could not stop us, the bombardment will not be able to kill us. On the contrary, we are growing year after year with strength, determination and a desire for learning and life, a desire for development and progress, to rise up with those people the war tried to bury and get rid of. 

I have had a great desire to write and express my views and ideas, to know how a journalist works, how to write and edit news, or how to collect and record information, but I could not find someone who could guide me or lead me to the right direction. I tried many times, but I could not succeed.  

I felt an overwhelming happiness, when I knew that there is a training course to teach the basics and principles of journalism and media. 

 I have a very simple education compared to you, but I am trying hard to develop and improve it, and I found that this training was something new and strange and worthy of the experience. 

At the end I became aware of the media ethics and how to collect information and formulate to output it in a proper format with no bias to any party. 

Although I live in a society that criticizes the work of women in general, whether she is a teacher, an engineer or even a doctor, and although I have not received any support or help from anyone, I have enough willpower and determination to continue the path I started with confident steps. 

Now I can prove to you that a woman’s place is not only at home, she can prove herself in any field, and in my own perspective, I do not see that media is limited or exclusive to men as our society sees it. 

As a girl, I can do whatever I want and prove myself in any field. I am capable of developing myself and advancing my thoughts, able to be a role model for change; changing the perspective of society towards the woman who works and plays her role in life. 

Yes, I am as a woman able to do a beautiful impact and to plant roses wherever I go, and as long as hope exists, we will live!  

We are the women today and have nothing to do with yesterday. 

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