Arab Women Journalists Unite to Tackle Climate Crisis in the Middle East

A group of 25 female journalists from 16 Arabic-speaking countries has joined forces under the Green Panther project. They aim to examine how climate change will shape life in their homelands. The initiative highlights the urgent challenges facing the region as temperatures rise faster than the global average. North Africa and the Middle East are heating up at twice the rate of the rest of the world. In Syria, extreme heat may soon make daytime work impossible, forcing people to labour only at night. Despite these hardships, innovative farming techniques are emerging as a potential solution for the future.

The journalists involved face significant obstacles. Reporting on climate change amid ongoing conflicts and limited data adds to their struggles. Among them are Rouba Abo Ammo, a Lebanese specialist in media literacy and climate awareness, Reham Abbas, a Sudanese TV journalist based in Dubai, and Wafa Arouri, a Palestinian journalist who founded an online climate magazine.

An upcoming event will feature readings by Syrian actress Kenda Hmeidan, who will present selected texts by the Green Panther journalists. The event will be bilingual, with simultaneous interpretation in German and Arabic. The Green Panther project brings together voices from across the Arabic-speaking world to address climate challenges. Their work sheds light on both the difficulties and the potential solutions for a region under growing environmental pressure. The event will further amplify their findings and stories.