Tiffany Zhu

Former CNN foreign correspondent Atia Abawi speaks to a Newspaper journalism class on Nov. 7. “Sometimes people call you naive as a journalist because you want to make a difference,” Abawi said.

Foreign correspondent and author Atia Abawi spoke about her journalism career to one period of the Newspaper classes on Nov. 7 in the journalism room.

Abawi started reporting after graduating from college and later joined CNN’s Media Operations department. Her Afghanistan background made her CNN’s primary source for news from the region, and she eventually became their Afghanistan correspondent. On her path to this position, however, she faced discrimination from both her bosses and colleagues.

“I consider myself a trusting person and I didn’t realize there was a lot of backstabbing going on behind me,” Abawi said. “As a young journalist, there’s a lot of ageism, and as a woman, there is a lot of sexism. Sometimes people call you naive as a journalist because you want to make a difference.”

Abawi showed students a video of her work, including when she covered the 2012 Afghanistan Quran burning protests. She explained how she chose to cover warzone events despite the increased targeting of journalists during conflicts, sharing that she even once gave an envelope to her best friend just in case she died.

Harker Aquila STEM Editor Jonathan Szeto commended Abawi’s bravery in covering these kinds of news stories. 

“It’s really interesting to see how she went about interviewing people and covering live events and when she was put in places where normal journalists wouldn’t go because of how dangerous it was,” Jonathan said. “It was nice to hear how she overcame difficulties in the workplace, especially sexism and other forms of discrimination.”

While Abawi has spoken to many high-profile individuals, her interviews with ordinary civilians during war times have impacted her the most, noting how people do not know the impact of war until they see it themselves. 

Harker Aquila Assistant News Editor Chelsea Xie (10) expressed admiration for Abawi’s dedication to providing true facts in a high pressure environment.

“The story she told that most impacted me was her work on the ground, seeing children and families suffering, and being able to accurately report that,” Chelsea said. “Instead of just treating them as numbers, she aimed to report people as true humans.”

Abawi remains dedicated to presenting multiple perspectives but mentioned how the inherent bias in many news outlets reveals only part of the picture, specifically in the current Israel-Palestine conflict. 

“Even if they look different than us or they practice a different religion than us, we have much more things that unite us,” Abawi said. “When we try to keep dividing, we create a much more dangerous world for all of us because in the end, what impacts them there will impact us here.”

To close off her presentation, Abawi encouraged students to consider people on both sides of the story, no matter the event.

“I go back to humanity,” Abawi said. “We see a lot of things on social media, we see things on mainstream media, but we forget that there are real people involved.”