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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
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'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...
