Create a community with your voice!

The Vision

Sharing Voices. Bringing People Together

Aswatona is an educational, mentoring, and information program implemented by the association Yasmin Kollektiv. The program’s ambition is to connect and support podcasters within the WANA region (North Africa and West Asia), and beyond. The name Aswatona is Arabic for our voices; the overall idea is to build up a sustainable transnational network for Arabic-speaking podcasters to exchange and learn from one another on a peer-to-peer level within a safe environment.
Aswatona consists of three basic components: An education program that trains podcasters from all around the WANA region and beyond, a podcast that makes voices from the region hearable in the three languages Arabic, English, and German, and a network that connects podcasters, podcast trainers, podcast platforms, and experts to one another and everyone who is eager to get to know them! Join us and create a community with your voice!
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The Idea

We have many ambitions. Four of them are particularly important to us.

Peer to Peer

Peer-to-Peer Learning

We draw attention to the differences and similarities of the region and aim in the long run to overcome disparities within and between the countries.

Strengthening women voices II

Strengthening Women’s Voices

We want to encourage topics that affect women. Therefore, Aswatona is a platform that promotes women’s voices to support their personal and professional development.
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Safe Space for Exchange

We support a culture of public information and discussion, which leads to a more inclusive, stable, and equal society. We want to listen to each other and exchange our experiences and visions concerning global and regional challenges in different societies.

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Breaking Stereotypes

We want to reach a diverse audience all over the world and question our patterns of thought. We publish in three languages to encourage transnational communication and establish a sustainable transnational network.

The Process

Aswatona Podcast Production

Our mentoring program offers a platform for participants to hone their skills, showcase their talents, and gain valuable experience in podcast production. We offer a unique opportunity for participants to collaborate and produce the Aswatona podcast, which deals with different key themes according to the season. Within our program’s frame, our participants choose the format and topic for each episode related to the key theme. They work in small groups of two to three individuals from different countries, or individually. They exchange knowledge and have the support of our experts and a professional team of mentors along the way.

Workshop

Our experts and mentors brainstorm ideas with our participants in the workshops. The participants decide on the topic they want to deal with.

Teamwork

In teams of two to three people from different countries, our participants record and produce the episodes.

Dubbing

After the scripts have been professionally translated, the episodes are recorded together with the participants and the dubbing artist.

Publishing

The episodes are then published to Aswatona podcast for the world to enjoy and share! 🙂

Key Themes 

Key themes are the topics of gender and podcasting. The topics of environment and power dynamics are analyzed from a feminist perspective.

The Medium

Podcast, a tool to create a community

Easy access, high potential, and a great impact, especially on the young generation – that’s what we think about podcasting. Furthermore, podcasts can provide a platform for marginalized communities to be heard and create a space for discussions and perspectives that are often underrepresented in mainstream media. Additionally, podcasts can be easily shared and distributed online, amplifying the reach and impact of activism efforts.

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of responders of the global survey from Reuters consume one or more podcasts per month.

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Podcast Programs in the Arab world.

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But only one Podcast program publishing in Arabic, English & German.

Network of Aswatona – Podcasts & more..

Aswatona Podcastmap

Aswatona is a podcast published in three languages – but it is also a network that lives through and with all the great cooperation partners and podcasters that we know, that we support, and that support us. To get an overview – this podcast map should help.

Explore and enjoy the varieties of partners and inspirational podcasters of our network. You’ll find the podcasts of our amazing participants who graduated from our workshop program throughout the years, alongside other interesting podcasts and podcast platforms within the WANA-region, and beyond.

Have fun exploring!

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Countries

Aswatona Podcast

Our Top Rated Episodes

Episode : 16

A voice from Algeria: Rima

Women in the WANA region are telling stories of their bodies from a very personal perspective, body ownership and gender dynamics are two main pillars in the stories we are hearing in this episode

Episode : 10

Power Dynamics in Queer Relationships

What is the first thing that pops to your head when you hear the word power? Power and Power dynamics – a topic that is difficult to grasp. In this episode we explore the questions of how power dynamics affect us. In four chapters we take you with us through our thoughts and knowledge on the topic of power dynamics. Be curious what awaits you and listen in to our final episode from the Aswatona Podcast.

Episode : 06

Plan B Pill in the Levant region

My body, my choice is a political claim of women all around the world! But who can choose and what are the options? In this episode we shed light on the (missing) availability to the plan B pill in the Levant and some personal stories on its impact.

Episode : 03

Why your access to food is at risk?

One of the major global challenges of the 21st century is Food Security which threatens to impact the WANA region more than any other region across the globe. In this episode, we explained the issue with the help of experts and activists

What's Happening

Latest Updates & Articles

Our Stories podcast -  قصصنا بودكاست

Our Stories podcast - قصصنا...

Our Stories podcast/ El-Mafasha, a podcast by Rasha AL Deeb, documents women stories as a personal history, that creates the collective history, the true history at the end. It is like the…
Inkyfada podcast - إنكفاضة بودكاست

Inkyfada podcast - إنكفاضة بودكاست

إنكفاضة بودكاست هي أول منصة رقمية من نوعها مخصصة كليا للإنتاجات الأصلية للبودكاست في تونس. أطلقها موقع إنكفاضة بالتعاون مع إنكيلاب مخبر البحث الرقمي والتطوير التابع له. في خضم العدد الهائل والمتزايد…

Feedback & Transparency

What People Say About Us

A workshop in audio editing? A session on monetizing podcasts? Training in interview skills?
Ahead of the workshops, we ask our participants about their interests and what skill training they appreciate. Additionally, we ask our participants and partners regularly for feedback. This gives us the opportunity to adapt the contents according to our participants’ essentials. Our aim is to provide support where it is really needed and to deal with criticism in an open and transparent way. Here are some quotes of our participants’ opinions after the first online workshop in in March 2021:
“It's been great connecting with other regional podcasters! Since the workshop ended, I've had a few chats and calls with other participants, sometimes for collaborations, and other times just to hang out.”
“There was sufficient time to exchange, discuss and share our ideas from different perspectives. We are still reconnecting over the beautiful platform Wonder that we discovered thanks to you.”
“Amazing implementation! I am still in awe with how informative, interactive and inspiring the first workshop was. I've already told so many friends about the tools we got to use so they can use them with their virtual meetings and workshops. I'm so impressed”
“I looooove that we are already starting to collaborate on projects outside the scope of Aswatona episodes, and I really appreciate the connections I've been building with fellow participants, but sometimes I get overwhelmed by the amount of things I have to keep up with (especially with my already filled schedule). I just need to make sure it's balanced and not taking up too much of the time which I need for my other work responsibilities.”

We asked the participants to what extent they agree with the following statements: Your baseline knowledge on a scale from 0% to 100%

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Baseline Knowledge 0%-100% after 1st workshop 

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We also welcome your ideas and feedback!

We are constantly evolving, embracing new ideas, and creating new formats that benefit as many people as possible. Keep up to date on our social networks. We will also be offering online workshops and live sessions there in the future. If you have any ideas, criticism, or feedback, feel free to write to us on social media or send us an email.

Aswatona is a project of Yasmin Kollektiv e.V. – a non-profit association & non-government organization, based in Germany. We are funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, and the State Hessen.
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The Podcast Community

We are nothing without our listeners

An engaging community is essential to any podcaster. We aim to build a community of listeners who want to actively participate in discussions and are not too shy to ask questions. Through social media, we want to offer a platform for vivid interactions and dialogue.

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Language is Power – Naming is Power

WANA: North Africa and West Asia; formerly known as MENA: Middle East and North Africa – we call it West Asia instead of Middle East, because Middle East is not a neutral geographic term but rather describes the region from a colonial perspective from the so-called “West”. With West Asia we’re trying to use a more neutral term geographic-wise.

Language is Power – Naming is Power

Women: The term “women” includes all human beings that identify as women, that means cis- and transwomen.
“cis” is a term used to describe a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth.
“Trans” describes someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
According to us, the term “women” doesn’t need a gender-star to include Transwomen because transwomen are women.