Amman, Jordan – UNFPA Jordan has embarked on a new collaboration with a leading regional podcast network with a large portfolio and audience, Sowt. The network has over 100,000 listens per week, its top ten countries are mostly in the MENA region, as well as the United States of America.
From this partnership, UNFPA aims to support the 6th season of the “Eib” podcast. The podcast examines how the lives of ordinary people have been affected by society’s definitions of, and rules pertaining to, gender. Each episode explores the stories of people and their encounters with divorce, reproductive healthcare services, and sexual orientation, all of which are topics rarely discussed in Jordanian society and tainted by the word shame or “Eib”.
UNFPA supports Sowt to produce 12 podcast episodes tackling key concepts around adolescents and youth sexual and reproductive health (SRH), including sexual health, gender-based violence (GBV) and issues that are deemed as taboo issues, such as menstruation, cyber harassment and parents and children sexual health communication. The episodes will delve into the subject from various angles.
These episodes are recorded using a high-quality, narrative-based storytelling style with integrated audio design and engineering for an engaging and immersive experience. Moreover, they will involve intensive research, featuring subject matter experts from Jordan to scientifically approach the topic, clarify any misconceptions and inform listeners, namely youth and adolescent boys and girls, on topics they find uncomfortable to discuss with their parents. Normally, youth tend to be misinformed on related topics as they seek information from unreliable sources or from their peers.
UNFPA Youth Program Analyst, Bothaina Qamar, indicated the importance of diversifying platforms for sharing information and stories on adolescents and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) including podcast platforms. “Eib” podcast not only provides an open platform to reflect on stories from Jordan, but also learn from experiences in the region. It is important to reach young people so they know they are not alone in this.”
Sowt Managing Producer, Tala El Issa, said: “This season is very important as it caters to younger audiences. We believe that although the entanglements and frustrations that envelope gender norms get pronounced at a later age, it is during teenage years that these transformations and challenges start to materialize.” She also added “In the region, we lack Arabic sources that view adulthood as a contextual experience. Of course, coming of age is universal, but we cannot deny its culture-specific nature. This is where we wish to fill the gap.”
The first of the co-created episodes will air on November 9, 2020 and episodes will continue until December 16, 2020, as they will highlight major events during that period including the celebration of 16 Days of Activism against Gender -Based Violence campaign.
Sowt podcasts can be found on all major platforms, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Sound-Cloud, Spotify, Castbox, and others. Sowt targets audiences from different age groups and backgrounds, which has been gaining a lot of popularity since its launch in 2016.
Listen to Episode 01 of season 6 on Sowt website: https://www.sowt.com/ar/podcasts/episode/althrsh-fy-dhalyz-alantrnt
Learn more:
UNFPA website: https://jordan.unfpa.org
