Iran’s second-largest city of Mashhad is set to host a key gathering of notable women journalists working for alternative media platforms from across the globe in late September.
Organizers of the International Khorsheed Media Festival in a statement said the edition of the global event will be held in Mashhad, in northeast Iran, from September 29 to October 1.
A total of 100 women journalists from more than 40 countries will come together for the festival and share their experiences and thoughts on stories rarely covered by the mainstream media.
American-Iranian broadcaster and Press TV host Marzieh Hashemi has been chosen as the director of the first edition of the festival, the statement noted.
This year’s festival has been dedicated to the memory of slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered by Israeli regime forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in May 2022.
“The Khorsheed Media Festival is an effort to unite independent women in media from around the world in order to cover important issues and voices muffled by the mainstream media,” Hashemi told the Press TV website.
The inaugural edition of the International Khorsheed Media Festival goes with the slogan “Women narrate, illuminate and initiate change”, according to the statement issued by organizers.
The event, the statement issued by organizers noted, seeks to create a platform for female journalists from across the world to discuss the most effective ways to create a new concept of reality in journalism.
Such a concept of reality, it said, would focus on ordinary people, especially women and children.
“The festival can be described as a forum to harmonize the voices of those less heard at the international level,” read the statement.
Topics that would figure during the three-day festival include women in media and promoting social justice, the institution of the family under media attack, women and the media of resistance, the role played by media in normalizing violence against women and media and modern slavery.