WOMEN HAVE A STRONG VOICE – DO YOU HEAR IT?

On International Women’s Day, SAT-7 programs across the Middle East and North Africa celebrate women’s power to change society for the better, while calling for faster progress towards recognition of their God-given equal value in families, communities, and societies.

On SAT-7’s Persian channel, SAT-7 PARS, women’s program Insiders will focus its International Women’s Day episode on the needs of female-headed households. The program will give space for women to talk about the financial, psychological, and cultural difficulties they face as lone parents managing families following divorce, separation, immigration, or widowhood.

The SAT-7 TÜRK program Homemade will also tackle the issues of gender-based violence, workplace discrimination, and social inequality in its episode on March 8th. The episode will be dedicated to all Turkish women who have been fighting to make their voices heard and to work towards gender equality in a context where femicide rates are very high.

Homemade presenter Şemsa Deniz Baker calls for government action on femicide in 2020

The SAT-7 ACADEMY educational content stream will share special social media spots and videos for International Women’s Day, as will SAT-7 TÜRK and SAT-7 ARABIC.

SAT-7’s work to give women and girls an accessible platform to be heard, to equip and encourage each other, and to contribute to changes in their society is a long-term priority for the ministry across its platforms.

Following the success of the long-running SAT-7 ARABIC program A Needle and New Thread, SAT-7 ARABIC is now preparing to launch a new five-year project, in collaboration with the Norwegian Mission Society, which focuses both on gender and on freedom of belief. Initial plans for this project include programming and complementary on-the-ground activities to help individuals living in cultures that devalue them to find freedom.

A FIGHT THAT NEEDS US ALL

UNICEF’s most recent situational analysis has ranked the Middle East and North Africa region as having made the slowest progress on gender equality.[1] In this context especially, the push for breaking bias, stereotypes, and discrimination, celebrating women’s value, and forging women’s equality needs all of us.

“To really change society, it is key to also work with men; to restore our relationship with men. Men and women together can reflect God’s glory,” said Sara Eid, a presenter of the SAT-7 ARABIC program The Secret Within. “This is the vision for our program–to be a lighthouse for women and a guide for men.”

Please lift up to God those who are teaching audiences of women and men about women’s value in His eyes through SAT-7. Pray today that these voices will impact many who hear them in the Middle East and North Africa, and that hearts and minds will be changed to pave the way for greater equality.

[1] https://www.unicef.org/mena/reports/situational-analysis-women-and-girls-middle-east-and-north-africa