Dispatches: Iraq: The Women's Story

Channel 4: Dispatches

Monday 8th May, 20:00 hrs

The invasion of Iraq heralded promises of freedom from tyranny and equal rights for the women of Iraq. But three years on, the reality of everyday life for women inside Iraq is a different story. To make this film, two Iraqi women risk their lives to spend three months travelling all over the country with a camera to record the lives and experiences of women they meet. Dispatches: Iraq: The Women's Story provides a compelling account of a life inside Iraq that is rarely seen on news bulletins: stories of ordinary women whose struggle to survive has only worsened since the war.

The film showed scenes of devastation and desolation rarely shown in official news footage. And the plight of these women is extraordinary. No online video available at the time of writing, unfortunately; this deserves to be seen by a wide audience.

Barely two hours later and still on Channel 4, "Iraq: The Hidden Story" was screened. Jon Snow visited Baghdad to investigate how coverage of the US-led war in Iraq has been restricted. He argues it's easy to have access to the inner sanctuary of top Iraqi political power but virtually impossible for journalists like him to report on anything outside the green zone. He also argues that Iraqi bloggers play a more important role in covering local stories which would remain inaccessible to mainstream, Western journalist like Jon. And that the information unearthed by these eyes and ears on the ground would make a sizeable part of the British population say "Not in my name!" Exactly...

Here's a roundup of Iraqi bloggers by useful fools. Visit them... Read them.... Support them...

A BBC article on Iraqi bloggers.

Keywords: Iraq, Iraqi women, Iraqi bloggers, Channel 4, Dispatches