On Monday, March 14, we hosted a new session of the Aula Árabe Universitaria program at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, to be given by Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim. The activity, which forms part of Casa Árabe’s Women’s Week, can be watched live on YouTube (in Spanish and in English). It is available on our YouTube channel in Spanish (https://youtu.be/f0Vz3k4Yy4E) and in English (https://youtu.be/0u_2unf5_o0). Being a freelance journalist in the Middle East and North Africa is a dangerous job,especially when considering the degree of impunity that exists in the region. But being a woman adds several layers of difficulty and many challenges more, including sexism, gender stereotyping and sexual harassment. Female journalists who report on their communities’ issues to the international media cannot escape these challenges or the domestic discrimination they face at home; they must also deal with the post-colonial bias shown by their colleagues and the Western media. Through the experience of Syrian journalist Zeina Erhaim, the issues that hinder the careers and lifelong growth of women journalists in the MENA region was addressed. The event has been organized with the cooperation of the Dual Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Humanities at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and forms part of the program Aula Árabe Universitaria, as well as the activities forming part of Women’s Week at Casa Árabe. Presented by Leila Nachawati, a professor of Communication at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The event will be moderated by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator. Zaina Erhaim is an award-winning Syrian journalist who works as a communications and gender expert with some international organizations in the Middle East and North Africa region. She contributed to three books about journalism and women, including Our Women on the Ground. She worked with the IWPR (Institute for War & Peace Reporting ) as a communications manager for eight years. Prior to that, she was a journalist for the BBC. She writes for different media outlets, such as Newslines Magazines, Open Democracy and Al Modon, as well as others. Erhaim holds a Master’s degree in International Journalism from the City University of London. The Dual Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Humanities educates professionals who perform the task of providing information on the basis of knowledge about different types of languages and ways of telling a story through journalism in any media, while able to understand world events from their own critical viewpoint. Combining the Degrees in Journalism and Humanities makes it easier for them to understand the constant transformation of our social environment while providing a comprehensive foundation for dealing with the challenges of the future using sound, accurate principles. This university degree allows students to decipher historical and contemporary events using the insight provided by an interdisciplinary humanistic approach in such fields as culture, communication, international studies, human resources and humanitarian policy. These pioneering studies in Spain include all of the contents normally taught separately in each of the two majors. At the end of the dual degree program, students are awarded two degrees, one in Journalism and the other in Humanities, and as a result they are granted all of the professional benefits which the two degrees entail. Photo: Zaina Erhaim