Fathi Mohamed Ahmed heads the first and only all-female newsroom in Somalia, one of the most risky places on the planet to be a journalist.
Bilan, the media house where Ahmed works as the chief editor produces a daily mix of hard facts and in-depth features for local and oftentimes international audiences.
In almost 18 months of its operation, Bilan (to shine a light), has overcome prejudice and insecurity to highlight some of the most ‘abominable’ subjects in Somalia, including a female drug epidemic, albinism, women living with HIV/AIDS and period(menstrual) shame.
With over 50 news reporters killed since 2010, Somalia has become the most dangerous country for journalists in Africa, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has since ranked Somalia in last place in its Global Impunity Index, which checks the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a nation’s population.
Somalia, a deeply patriarchal society, is home to a number of people who find it difficult to discuss women’s issues in public, according
to Ahmed.
Some citizens have complained that Bilan’s stories marred the reputation of the country.
A news coverage about the stigma surrounding menstruation had became one of Bilan’s most viral report when it was broadcast earlier in the year, totalling more than 130,000 views and tons of comments on Facebook.
The story compelled the Ministry of Women to offer to work together on an advocacy campaign, and it has won over more than one Islamic cleric, a group that most times, holds the most conservative views in the Somali society.
