Freshta Shikhany – Pakistan ex Afghanistan

Linked with INTERNEWS, with PACT radio – Pakistan, with Houda Mahamat Malloum – Chad, and with The Elders.org. 

« With radio, I can give my community a voice, » says Freshta Shikhany, one of few women reporters in Pakistan. Shikhany reports for Da Pulay Poray (On the Borderline). The weekly program, started by Internews and produced by a team of Pakistani and Afghan radio journalists, covers issues affecting populations along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and airs on 15 radio stations in the region. Shikhany also has her own show on Buraq 104 Peshawar’s first independent FM station. Shikhany received early education in refugee schools and later joined an unregistered Afghan university to study journalism. She had family support, but no Pakistani institution would accept her as a student to allow her to finish her degree. Then she learned about the journalism training program run by Internews at the University of Peshawar. Shikhany was admitted as a special case due to her refugee status and went on to complete the course … (full text).

Freshta Shikhany, aka “DJ Malaika,” is a study in determination. She fled Kabul in 1992 at age 9 when “rockets were flying all over the city” and sought refuge in the border town of Peshawar in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. Freshta got her early education in refugee schools and later joined an unregistered Afghan university to study journalism. A year into the course, Pakistani authorities closed down the school. Undaunted, Freshta and a few other students continued to study with volunteer teachers from the defunct university. Their classes, started in the backyard of a refugee organization, soon grew into a university when more refugee students joined. But two years later, this too closed down. Freshta had family support, but no Pakistani institution would accept her as a student and allow her to finish her degree. Then she learned about the journalism training program run by Internews at the University of Peshawar. She was admitted as a special case due to her refugee status. Freshta went on to complete the radio journalism course offered by Internews … (full text).

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Freshta Shikhany – Pakistan ex Afghanistan

Read this 4 pages pdf: internews-pakistanwomen-2007march.

More Pioneering Women Journalists of Pakistan (besides of Freshta Shikhany): Rashida Kiani; Nabeela Aslam; Nighat Hunzai.

Farishta Shaykani was born in Kabul but actually she belongs from Shaykhan village of Panjsher, in Afghanistan. As a ten-year old girl, she and her family became refugees in Pakistan. She was in her final year at the Peshawar-based Ibn-e-Sina Afghan University, when the University was closed. But this disappointment turned out to be a new opportunity for Farishta, since it gave her the chance to attend a journalism course at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Peshawar University. Farishta chose radio because it is very popular among Afghans. Besides working as refugee reporter for PACT, she also works as a Farsi DJ at Radio Buraq, the first Pakistani FM station to conduct programmes for the Afghan community in their own language … In December 2007, Farishta Shaykhani was promoted from reporter to producer, Da Pulay Poray programme. She is responsible for producing the second weekly Da Pulay Poray programme.  (full text).

… Like other PACT reporters, Farishta has remained committed to PACT, even when there have been no funds with which to pay her. Explaining her commitment to PACT Radio, she said: Through Din-o-Dunya and Da Pulay Poray, I am able to help people. I will never abandon that help … My family says to me, you are working so hard, following people around the place, don’t you get paid anything? I reassure them and say, it’s okay, I am helping people, and this work has become part of my life. I cannot give it up now. She has done many reports for PACT, bringing out best aspects of Pak-Afghan peaceful co-existence and harmony, which she herself embodies, having lived most of her life in Pakistan. One of the hallmark reports which she made in this regard was a report on Pak-Afghan relations, on a people and politician level … (full text).

Sorry, thats all I found in the internet on Freshta Shikhany, Pakistan ex Afghanistan.

More about Press freedom and other items in Internews:

  • Internews Celebrates World Press Freedom Day: What Does Press Freedom Mean to You? – As we mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, Internews honors those journalists around the world who are devoting their lives to ensure that people can get the news and information they need to make decisions for themselves, their families, and their larger communities. What does press freedom mean to you? Please e-mail us your thoughts, which we may include in future newsletters or on our web site. In this issue: … (find here five relevant articles).
  • The Elders Celebrate World Press Freedom: … (full text).
  • Good Morning Afghanistan: On the Front Lines of Building Independent Media: … (full text /scroll down).
  • … and more.

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