Posted: June 17, 2010
Country: Egypt
‘Tobacco girls’ is a shocking article by Safaa Saleh of the harmful working conditions of many Egyptian girls in the Al-Warda tobacco factory, in Egypt. Through this article Safaa Saleh brings us inside the unexplored halls of one of the biggest tobacco production factories, pretending to be one of the new workers herself and documenting the everyday life of many young girls aged from 9 to 22, who are often forced to leave the education system to go to work in such unhealthy environments.
This brave article won the 2010 Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press, in the category “best investigative report”. Safaa Saleh, the article’s author, is an Egyptian journalist currently writing for Al-Ousbouh; she previously worked with Al-Yaoum and the Jeel Al-Ghad, in Egypt.
The ‘Tobacco Girls’ article was originally produced as part of a training course for journalists organised by the Media Diversity Institute in Egypt, and published in Arabic in the newspaper Al-Ousbouh on the 11 December 2009. The article can be viewed in English by downloading the booklet of all the articles produced at MDI training courses in Egypt – Click here
