Meet the Spring Fellows: Juhie Bhatia
By IRP Staff, March 27, 2012
Juhie Bhatia is passionate about her work, whether she’s discussing her role as managing editor of the online magazine Women’s eNews or her current trip to Morocco. Bhatia left for a five-week IRP reporting trip at the beginning of the month.
She’s already reported on one sixteen-year-old victim of rape who, when forced to marry her rapist, took her own life. Though Morocco has made great improvements in the realm of women’s rights, it still has a long way to go, but Bhatia also reports that Moroccan women seem up to the challenge of reforming their country’s laws.
Bhatia chose Morocco, which has maintained a relatively low profile even in light of the waves of protests sweeping the region, because the country has undergone significant changes in maternal health. Stopping first in Rabat and then the port city of Casablanca, Bhatia is meeting with several NGOs involved in maternal health and its confluence with current legislation. She is also interviewing doctors, midwives and patients to get a stronger sense of what is happening on the ground.
Changes to women’s rights in Morocco began in 2004 with the passage of the Family Code, or Moudawana, which covered basic rights of women in the context of marriage and family life. The forward momentum of the movement has extended into the specific area of maternal health, Bhatia’s primary area of interest.
Bhatia has covered women’s issues for more ten years, and she embraces the challenges that her job brings—including those associated with traveling alone in Morocco. There is a distinct possibility of being harassed on the street, particularly after dark. The language barrier is another potential challenges; finding a translator who will not be inclined to filter out anything they consider distasteful is a common roadblock for journalists reporting from foreign locales, especially when it comes to the sensitive nature of women’s health.
Despite this, Bhatia is optimistic about her reporting trip. “It’s just nice to see a success story and not more victimization ones,” she says.