As part of the Page Barbour Lecture Series at the University of Virginia, Al-Jazeera International journalist Dorothy Parvaz recently held open table discussions with interested students. Parvaz presented a discussion about why journalism matters at Brooks Hall, as well as one at OpenGrounds about US intervention in the Middle East. During her visit she also ate lunch and dinner with media studies and journalism students. Her discussions were part of the transduction lecture series here at UVA, which is led by Professor Fraser.
I attended the dinner with Parvaz and five other students in Clark Hall, which was a great opportunity to get to speak with her one-on-one. We got to discuss the issues that pervade the Middle East as well as aspects of the journalism field.
As the special projects online editor at Al Jazeera English, Parvaz is based out of Qatar. Her work takes her primarily to Egypt, Libya, and Iran to cover civil rights issues, but she has also visited Japan to cover the nuclear impact after the 2011 tsunami. Parvaz was arrested in Syria in 2011 and held in an Iranian prison for three weeks.
When I first introduced myself to Parvaz at the dinner, she was unlike what I expected. She was cool, very approachable, and engaging. Right off the bat, she started giving me advice about where I should study abroad based on her personal experience… which was pretty awesome. Eating Chipotle with a world-renowned, award-winning journalist is pretty awesome in general.
In our dinner discussion, Parvaz made many interesting points about journalism and the Middle East that I thought were necessary to share. Most of the students at the dinner plan on going into journalism, but she was quick to get our heads out of the clouds. Referring to journalists just starting out, “You need to report on the shooting down the street before you go into a warzone.” In other words, she thinks that journalists need to report on the news in their own backyard before they can take the risks of going abroad, risks which she emphasized.
Surprisingly, she said that female journalists have the easier time in terms of being in dangerous situations. As a female journalist in countries where women are often subjugated, you are not viewed as a threat. A militant with a machine gun would not want to make themselves appear weak by attacking a woman, Parvaz noted. So, the male journalists are the ones targeted because they are the fairer fight.
Nonetheless, Parvaz made sure to highlight that danger and journalism are one in the same. She said, “You cannot report if you are dead,” whilst discussing how taking risks on your life is not something a journalist should be doing. The risks she mentioned were endless. For example, in some countries, wearing Western perfume or too much eyeliner is grounds for imprisonment, a shocking prospect.
Dinner with Dorothy Parvaz was eye-opening and thought-provoking. Having an intellectual and open discussion with such an influential figure was an incredible opportunity—something you only get to do in college.