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Honestly, I cannot see how this type of subject is covered by this precise media knowing that I applied to all of their job openings and that I was told "there are too many Arabs, and with your hijab...” as an answer. https://twitter.com/ajplusfrancais/status/1272962492751380480">https://twitter.com/ajplusfra...
As long as I can remember I dream of working for Al Jazeera, since my early childhood. I grew up with this channel that was and still is my parents’ favorite.
@AlJazeera regardless of what people say is THE channel that revolutionized media treatment in the Arab world. It gave voice to those we couldn& #39;t hear, and in some parts of the world, those that we only heard through biased prism of western media.
As Belgian with Moroccan origin, I identify myself a lot with everything Al Jazeera represents . I studied journalism and afterwards Arabic precisely to realize that dream. I went to Qatar to improve my Arabic in order reach that goal.
So you can imagine how happy it made me, when the French/Arabic speaking Belgian that I am, discovered the launch of a French version of Al Jazeera.
With my background and being already in Qatar I felt that I could be an ideal match for the position. This was my opportunity. I didn’t even need to be accommodated in a hotel;
I was so enthusiastic that I would have even agreed to an unpaid internship, if they had been willing to at least give that chance…
I studied in a journalism / communication school in Belgium, I worked for Huffington Post, Le Gsara, Arabel, Hit Radio and many other places…, I speak French, English, Dutch, Arabic (classical and several dialects) and a little of Berber.
My resume, they know it by heart since I have sent it to them at least 7 times. I applied to several of their online applications. I gave my resume to AJ + staff, and I received 0 feedback.
I was so determined that I even managed to meet @Dima_Khatib (Head of AJ+) twice to tell her about my application. I got a very polite answer, then nothing.
The worst part is that at the beginning I believed that I was the problem, that I was not qualified enough, that I did not have enough experience ...
but when I realized that in the team of journalists there were just graduated from school people, I figured out there was another problem.
Then one day comes to Qatar a group of young Belgians, they wanted to visit Al Jazeera, and @Dima_Khatib kindly accepted. We got to meet the different teams and that was how I finally got an answer.
That day as I was visiting with our young guests (which could vouch for it) and @abdelenvrai , I finally got to meet one of the managements to ask him why they didn’t want to give me a chance.
The answer was very clear "No but you are Arab and there is already too much Arabs in the team … and also the target is the French audience, you know how things are with the hijab in France..". Honestly at that moment , I was really disgusted it made me want to cry.
So today it disgusts me so much when I see them covering Islamophobia topics , that I think to file a complaint. For far too long I remained silenced but today I can not stand this hypocrisy anymore, especially coming from a media that pretends fighting against Islamophobia.
This has been years that I am fighting daily for people to stop looking at me only as a hijabi . For me to get a chance to exist as a person, as a journalist, whether or not I have a scarf on my head is not the topic , it should not matter.
It is killing me that a media treated me the same way as those which they are reporting...
