Thread by @NancyGEO

Today’s disappoint with @france24:they invited to speak, first as part of a debate on Egypt then the journalist apologized that she cannot have me if I’m participating via Skype because they have a policy not to have more than two guests via skype. Instead...1/10 #Jan25

Instead they invited me to a one-on-one interview after the debate. I accepted. Only to see the debate they hosted was among an all men panel, a manel. I have no doubt at all that any of my dear colleagues who joined the debate would have accepted this had they known. 2/10

Yet, I find it hard to accept that @france24 has a policy on skype technicality but not on gender balance. To make things worse, the host @markowenf24, casually mentioned during the debate that he is discussing w/3 Egyptian men but they could not find a women who’s available 3/10

I could easily name a list of excellent Egyptian women who could have spoken on the brilliantly about Egypt politics. Although it is not an excuse or justification, I thought it was a matter of bad coordination. 4/10 @WomenKnowMENA

Then I found out that today, @france24 had also hosted an Arabic version of the debate with another all Egyptian men panel.I was extremely disappointed, but by the time I found al this out, it was very close to my interview time. 5/10

So when the producer called for a test, I told her that I had to be honest that this was all unacceptable, and that in Washington we have stood strongly against such bias, (where there is no dearth of women expertise). I did not want to put her in an awkward situation,... 6/10

Respectfully, I gave her a choice, either I go on the show and address this issue first and call @France24 on it before I talk about Egypt, or she could decline having me. She asked whether I would speak about Egypt still, I said I would but I will address this issue first 7/10

She talked to her boss and came back saying they would decline having me. Ironically, at an earlier panel today @Pomed, I was talking about women’s battles in Egypt and how important that was because even during the revolution, women issues were treated as a marginal issue 8/10

It would’ve been hypocritical of me to criticize inequality in my country but not call it out at channel of an ostensibly progressive country like France—at a day where they were discussing the sad state of affairs in our Country. Unfortunately, that’s not an exception! 9/10

I have written about a similar situation @thewashingtonpost when a top UK university hosted a conference on ISIS with 26 speakers and then found out that I was the only women (they later added one other woman speaker); story here: washingtonpost.com/posteverything… 10/10