Güler Can-Asiye Erdoğan/JINHA

GİRESUN – Journalist Saliha Yayla has worked for 25 years to be the voice of women in the small Black Sea region city of Giresun. Saliha says that in spite of the strong social and economic pressure against women in journalism, she was drawn to the challenge of changing the face of journalism in the city.

Working as a woman in the small city of Giresun has its own challenges, but working as a journalist is a challenge of its own. In spite of the strong local prejudices against women in journalism, Saliha Yayla has worked for a range of newspapers and television programs over the years. She now runs the local paper New Giresun and hosts a program on the local station, Tempo.

Saliha gave up being an accountant after she divorced her husband because she "didn't like money." Unable to find work, Saliha started out as a secretary at a local paper.

"When I answered the phone, they'd say 'sir' to me because they said 'there can't be a woman at a newspaper,'" recalled Saliha. In spite of the difficulties, she started working as a journalist for various outlets. She said she was drawn to the challenge of changing the field.

"I had to work, I looked for a job and this became my profession," she said. "And it's a good thing. In those days, there would be 15 men working and I was the only woman going [to cover stories]. The ones holding the meetings, talking, standing at the podiums were all men, and the journalists listening to them were all men."

She said local people looked at her and the few other women colleagues as "a woman of the street" because she was always out with her notebook and camera. She even volunteered for pro-Kurdish newspaper Free Agenda (Özgür Gündem), in spite of the risks associated for working for the heavily repressed paper in a part of Turkey known for racist sentiments. Saliha covered issues like the Kurdish migrant workers who came to work in the local hazelnut fields, otherwise ignored by other newspapers. At one point, she ran for parliament with the pro-Kurdish party HADEP.

Today, she notes, local newspapers underpay their journalists to the point where it is impossible for them to cover objective journalism. This makes pressure against women even stronger.

"Being a woman in Turkey, in Giresun, in the world, is hard," said Saliha. "But you're human through your struggle.

(fk/cm)