Female TV journalists go international

News reports filmed by Afghan women are being shown for the first time ever on French national television after an agreement reached by journalists heading up AINA, the Afghan media and cultural centre run by French journalists in the capital, Kabul. "The editor of the news programme was very satisfied with the quality and depth of the reports," the video project manager for AINA in Kabul, Florent Milesi, told IRIN on Tuesday. Four reports, each of two and a half minutes in length, are being shown on the France 3 channel. "We don't know how often we will send reports to the channel, but this is a premiere and it has opened up doors for these women," he added. The compilers of the reports are on a one-year programme at AINA - funded by the Asia Foundation, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) - where 20 women are being taught how to use a digital video camera for news, features and documentaries. The news packages broadcast on France 3 were translated from Dari into French, and covered issues in and around Kabul, including a feature on the women's jail, children at work and villagers in the Shomali Plains. "They put a lot of thought and effort into these news items," Milesi explained, noting that the women had filmed and scripted the stories themselves with assistance from staff at AINA. The French channel paid US $2,500 for the reports and the money will be spent on training at the media centre. "The women are very proud and satisfied with the work they are producing here and are eager to continue the flow," Milesi said. The women themselves are being paid $100 a month by AINA so they can remain focused and are not forced by their families to work in other areas to earn a living. "We have seen a lot of pictures of Afghanistan taken by foreign journalists, and particularly men. Now it is time for the women to show what they can do in this field, and they are already taking the international media by storm," he asserted. Some of the women are already working for the Afghan media and, to ensure they are fluent in English, they will attend classes at the centre and receive computer training to bring them up to date with the latest technology. The production of two 50-minute documentaries in the Dari language will be one of the main exams they will take towards the end of the course. The first documentary will be an oral history of more than 100 Afghan women from all over the country, and the second will focus on Afghan women in politics. It is hoped that these products will also be bought and broadcast by international TV stations. "We have already had interest from French channels for these films, and they have a bright future ahead of them," he added.