Author: Text and photos: Gitte Young. Translation: Andrew Bell

Published: 10-02-2014

Facts

The radio station is supported by the Swiss organisation The Womanity Foundation. Nisaa FM has also participated in a 'twinning’ with Danish state broadcaster Danmarks Radio, arranged by the Danish organisation International Media Support and supported by the Danish-Arab Partnership Programme

 

 

 

 

 

Travel on the bus from Jerusalem to Ramallah. Shut your eyes and listen. It is very likely that what you will hear playing out of the loudspeakers in the bus will be irrefutable proof that Palestinian radio for and by women has become a hit on the airwaves.   

 

Nisaa FM ('Nisaa’ means 'Women’ in Arabic, ed.) is the name of a radio station that went on air in June 2010. Since first going on air, the station has been headed Maysoun Odeh. As well as being the founder of Nisaa FM, she manages the stations 10 employees: seven women and three men.

 

“One of the biggest signs of success for us is the fact that our radio station is being played on public transport, for example on the bus between Jerusalem and Ramallah. That means that we’re really reaching a wide audience,” tells Maysoun Odeh.

 

 

 

Inspirational radio

Maysoun Odeh is driven by a fundamental desire to produce radio that provides inspiration and encouragement to women in conflict-ridden occupied areas. This is achieved by broadcasting features and stories about role models – successful women from all strata of society – as well as covering many other issues that the head of the radio station herself would like to hear about. 

 

“In the mornings, when the target audience is working women, I want to hear something that will set me up for the whole day. This could be, for example, stories about other women – politicians, lawyers, activists – but it could also be health tips and good career advice,” explains Maysoun Odeh. 

 

The main audience in the afternoons is women who are at home, and programmes broadcast here are about the family, nutrition, films and books,. However, the range of themes covered by Nisaa FM is much broader than the typical women’s magazine. Nisaa FM also brings its afternoon listeners political analysis, programmes about women’s rights, and examines the different conditions faced by women and men.

 

 

 

Difficult to find participants

Maysoun Odeh would not call herself or the radio station feminist in the sense that it is anti-men; nevertheless, gender equality is a key focus area of both her and the station’s programmes, particularly the issue of how women can gain employment in leading and decision-making positions. 

Creating (more) of these types of job for women is a main objective of the radio station, and to this end it runs its own training and recruitment programme for women students. The students do work experience and receive training at the station, and the best are then offered a job at the end.

 

“As a part of the media, we want to play our part in helping more and more women to become producers rather than just consumers,” explains Maysoun Odeh.

 

In line with this, the station prefers that those commentators who speak on the radio – as expert sources from different areas – be women. But as radio host and producer on Nisaa FM’s morning programme Nisreen Awwad explains, it has often been difficult to get (women) interviewees to give an interview on the radio:

 

“It was hard to begin with. Some women thought that they didn’t really have anything to contribute. It’s here that I step in to explain to them just how important it is that their particular story be told by them as a person, with their own voice and their own accent.”

“And I’ve also been out many times to try and talk round a husband or a son who was unhappy about his wife or mother going on the radio – sometimes with success, sometimes not.”

 

“The principle reason is that some people are just very private or conservative. The only thing I can do in these situations is to inform them thoroughly about what we want to do and who we are, and ensure them that the broadcast will 'treat’ them kindly and compassionately. But if they really don’t want to, then that’s that and I can’t do anything other than respect their decision and perhaps get back to them at a later date,” tells Nisreen Awwad, who has nevertheless experienced that things have been getting easier with time as both her face and her voice are becoming more recognised.

 

“As time goes on, people are getting to know us, and that of course helps. Now we are being contacted by people who want to participate, and some just can’t wait to tell their story on the radio,” she explains.

 

“For me, having a woman in the studio talking about how she’s taken out a micro-loan in order to provide for her family every day is just as important as having a governor in the studio. Both are success stories, and every woman is special.”

 

 

 

Men must be included too

Despite the general objective of the radio station, women are not the only target audience. One survey of listeners carried out by the station revealed that women are far from the only ones tuning in. To the delight of Maysoun Odeh, men now represent a large proportion of the station’s listeners.

 

“When you’re trying to bring about change for women, you have to include men. The men that tune in are well educated and represent the more progressive areas of society. They include lawyers, directors and policemen, and I think they get a kick out of the fact that we’re doing something different,” explains Maysoun Odeh, who nevertheless has one overriding explanation as to what Nisaa FM has done, and continues to do, to attract – and keep – its many male listeners:

 

“We play the very best music! And also I think we’ve chosen a very catchy name that grabs peoples attention and to male ears it sounds, well, 'sexy’ – in the non-sexist sense,” she explains, continuing:

 

“And we want to reach out to an even broader audience. For example, our listeners are predominantly between 23 and 50 years old and come from the middle and upper classes. But we also want to reach out to a younger group of listeners and those in lower income brackets.”

 

One way of reaching these groups in particular is by means of outdoor broadcasts. Outside broadcasting is radio sent from a mobile radio studio that travels out to rural areas where the majority of the population have low incomes. Nisaa FM already sends this type of broadcasts but wants to do so even more. 

 

 

 

Important partners  and ambitions to go further

But despite it not all being plain sailing (not least because it broadcasts in an area where the fight for independence is lead by a conservative party with deep religious roots), Nisaa FM enjoyed considerable growth over the course of its three years on the airwaves.   

 

“The fact that we’ve now got important partners who recognise and co-operate with us has been crucial to our success. For example, we’ve worked together with the Ministry for Women and various NGOs, and we’ve provided them with a public platform with sensitive agendas. The topics can be anything from so-called 'honour killings’ to child marriages. It may sound simple, but even though we’re not political it’s always been difficult. This can be attributed to the fact that women’s organisations in Palestine are per definition political – and we are not. That’s why people have found us difficult to work out and difficult to trust,” explains Maysoun Odeh.

 

And not only is it Palestinian (and other Arabic-speaking) listeners living in occupied territories who can enjoy the station’s three daily broadcasts. Nisaa FM can be streamed live over the Internet, so the Palestinian diaspora across the world can listen in too.

 

The radio station is currently 35% financed by advertising and 65% financed through support from donors, with the ambition of increasing the share financed through advertising