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Margaux Seigneur is a feminist investigative journalist Based in France. Margaux travels around the world and reports on the field to better understand the challenges that women face in different countries, especially in the Middle East and in Turkey. Margaux has created, within the Think tank, The New Global Order, a department of investigative journalism specialized in women’s rights; The Second Voice. Margaux is particularly passionate about conducting interviews and surveys on issues that directly or indirectly impact women in sensitive areas of the world.
Margaux is now working in Beirut, Lebanon, trying to understand how the current crisis affects women in the political, social, and economic sectors. As in her previous trips, Margaux wants to promote the place of women in society by giving them more visibility in the media. Henceforth, she will be reporting their voices, putting a light on their determination to rebuild their country.
We are honored to have Margaux contribute to and enrich Rights of Equality with her journalistic storytelling and captivating interviews from the ground. It was an incredible experience speaking to Margaux about her own journey as a feminist change-maker and sharing that with our readers.
Margaux, How and why did you become a feminist?
I guess it all started when I was 10 years old. I was listening to the radio with my nan in her kitchen. The journalist was explaining how women were getting less pay than men for equal work. I was scandalized. Thus, I immediately went on the street and started to collect signatures from the inhabitants for a petition aiming at eliminating the gender salary gap. I collected around 50 signatures. In the head of my 10 years old self, it was huge; it was a revolution! I therefore proudly sent it to the former French president; Nicolas Sarkozy to demand him to implement concrete measures regarding this matter. He never replied to me. From then on I knew that I would dedicate my life to fighting gender inequality and most importantly, that I would take all the necessary actions for people of power to reply to me.
This determination never left me.
On a personal scale, I have suffered and carried the burden of what being a woman involves. At first when I was a kid, then as a teenager, and later as a student. I am hoping for a “finally” in this sentence but there won’t be any since every single day, on the street, on social media, etc. I can feel the weight of the condition of my gender.
After being deeply traumatized by those events, I finally came to the realization that none of those were because of me. The repetition of those tragedies was all linked to one element; my gender. Thenceforth, my sadness and feeling of guilt metamorphosed into deep anger and determination. Anger because I wasn’t the only one. Indeed, the phenomenon of sexism, rape, sexual aggression is widely spread. My friends, my family member, etc. are all touched.
Determination because I knew deep down inside that it is high time to put an end to this gender-based sexism and violence that represents rites of passage in the lives of girls and women. And so I decided to tackle what I consider being the biggest and oldest injustice of humanity.
What brought you to journalism/ Why did you choose to become a journalist?
For a very long time, I felt the need to go into the field to confront myself with what I was studying. It started at the age of 14 when I went to the National Assembly in Paris to question a member of the French parliament on the issue of sexism in politics. Since that day I have never ceased.
I deeply believe in the fact that when you go on the field, when you directly meet people, you can feel the emotion of your subject more concretely. You are no longer secured in your own environment. On the opposite, you put yourself in “danger” by going where your benchmarks will be gone, in the same way, that the interviewee put herself or himself in danger by testifying to you.
Henceforth, reporting from the field gain sense since you are the one relocating in order to bring back the information.
It must be noted that I strongly believe in the power of words.
I have always been obsessed with writing to defend a cause, to highlight injustices, etc. Thus, going to meet people who make a difference, who have expertise is very rich and allows to accumulate a lot of knowledge.
As a journalist, I try to help bring to light people who represent a change, who have something to say. To contribute to telling their truth, to report different realities is for me a very precious and valuable duty on a human basis.
At each meeting, I feel privileged that a person shares with me a part of his or her life. Indeed, I have this urge to spread it to as many people as possible so that they too can benefit from these precious interactions.
Journalism is thus an obvious choice for me. I am only at the beginning of my career but I feel like I have found the environment in which I am completely fulfilled. An environment that is constantly changing, where routine does not exist, and where encounters enrich me considerably.
What is the most empowering fact about being a reporter?
Deep down, I am convinced that everyone has something to say.
For different reasons such as the ones of security, fear, lack of means, etc. a lot of people particularly women, remain silent. Hence, receiving enough trust from people whose voices have not yet been heard or have been censored and having the possibility to tell their stories is one of the most powerful aspects of being a reporter.
I am thinking in particular of my experience in Ankara. Indeed, in Turkey, most of the international journalists are based in Istanbul. Henceforth, in the capital, there is a kind of void, an absence of media coverage in short.
One might think that because there are fewer foreign journalists in this city, people are more suspicious and reluctant to speak with them.
In reality, it is the complete opposite.
Being a French woman, journalist, feminist, and living in Ankara has actually helped me enormously to get into Turkish and Kurdish militant groups, as well as political and journalist circles. I had the immense honor to meet women, lawyers, activists, politicians who simply wished with all their heart to testify to a foreign journalist so that their fights go beyond the borders.
The dignity of an individual is closely linked to the degree of recognition granted to that person. Therefore, participating in the acknowledgment of a story, of a fight, and thus, of an individual itself, is an absolute consecration.
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