SAT-7 PARS’ live women’s program Insiders is challenging culturally accepted actions and behaviour that restrict women’s rights and lives in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, and reinforce the notion of women as second-class citizens. A special episode of Insiders broadcast on Women’s Day, 8 March, will highlight the role of women as heads of households and as breadwinners.

On International Women’s Day, SAT-7 programs across the Middle East and North Africa celebrate women’s power to change society for the better, while calling for faster progress towards recognition of their God-given, equal value in families, communities, and societies.

Working from home due to the pandemic, Maia Woodward, Communications Manager at SAT-7, reflects on when she cycled for peace in 2004 with 250 women across the Middle East. This Women’s Day, Maia shares the stories of some of the remarkable women she met; Middle Eastern women who experienced pain and conflict, and yet still held on to hope.

As the pandemic pushes vulnerable women in to darker places and further invisibility, SAT-7 CEO Ms Rita El-Mounayer, shares how women are on the frontlines across the region and how our programs are giving a place to voice both their struggles, share their contributions to change and continue to encourage women to find hope in Christ.

This year’s milestone International Women’s Day (8 March) highlights the world’s painfully slow progress toward gender equality and the new generation’s power to drive change. At this watershed moment, women across the Middle East – where progress has by some measures been slowest – are speaking out on SAT-7, drawing power from their Christian faith to call for the equal value that is inherently theirs.

What does it mean to be a woman in a conservative, male-dominated society like Turkey? The latest episode of SAT-7 TÜRK talk show Turning Point took this as the focus in the week that marks International Women’s Day (8 March).

SAT-7 CEO Designate Rita Elmounayer celebrates the courageous women of the MENA region on International Women’s Day.