International Women’s Day 2015: Challenging dominance, creating platforms for expression

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For International Women’s Day 2015, IMS pays tribute to the women around the world who challenge male dominance in and around the media; the women who create platforms for free expression and open debate.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, the IMS-supported women’s magazine Zhin does just that: with an all-female staff who reaches out to a large and diverse group of women it promotes female success stories and provides a platform for expression for women in a society where representation in, and production of, media is otherwise dominated almost entirely by men.

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Iraqi Kurdish women’s magazine breaks with tradition, seeks to inspire

Going by the sparsely but trendily furnished newsroom in which she works, Ala Latiff could be anywhere between Paris and New York. Actually she sits only a few hundred kilometres away from areas controlled by Islamic State (IS) in Iraqi Kurdistan.

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In photos: Women first, refugees second

After fleeing the impact of the Syrian war, these five women were forced to settle far from their homes. Wanting to remind the world that the word refugee does not even begin to define their identities, the women took part in a photo shoot for the IMS-supported Iraqi Kurdish women’s magazine, Zhin.

The women who escaped the horrors of Islamic State

“It is better for us not to sleep so that we may spare ourselves of the nightmares of Islamic State.” The seventeen-year-old girl was the only survivor from a family of eight. The story of her escape is a long one.