What emerged was not simply a discussion about media representation, but a challenge to the structures that shape whose voices are amplified, whose are distorted, and whose are erased entirely. Across different contexts—from Papua New Guinea to global media networks - the speakers revealed how narratives around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are often controlled by institutions that are distant from lived realities. These narratives, while appearing authoritative, can flatten complexity, reinforce stigma, and strip individuals - especially women and marginalised communities - of agency.
Claudia Loeber-Raab opened the conversation by emphasising the power of storytelling not just as communication, but as influence. In the field of SRHR, narratives do more than inform - they shape policy, direct funding, and determine whose experiences are seen as legitimate. Yet too often, she suggested, these stories are filtered through institutional lenses that prioritise metrics, outcomes, and “success stories” over the messy, nuanced realities of people’s lives. The result is a kind of narrative control that feels polished but disconnected, where lived experience is translated into something more palatable, but less truthful. Claudia serves as Communications Manager, MSI Asia Pacific.
This disconnect was powerfully grounded by Nancy Hombo, a midwife and GEDSI (Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion) mentor from Papua New Guinea, whose workplaces her at the frontline of SRHR. She spoke not in abstractions, but in the weight of everyday encounters - with women navigating limited access to healthcare, with cultural expectations that shape reproductive choices, and with systems that often fail to meet people where they are. Nancy’s perspective highlighted a critical gap: the stories that circulate globally about SRHR rarely reflect the realities she witnesses daily. When narratives are created without these voices, they risk becoming not only incomplete but harmful, reinforcing assumptions that overlook the structural and cultural complexities of care.
Claudia Loeber-Raab opened the conversation by emphasising the power of storytelling not just as communication, but as influence. In the field of SRHR, narratives do more than inform - they shape policy, direct funding, and determine whose experiences are seen as legitimate. Yet too often, she suggested, these stories are filtered through institutional lenses that prioritise metrics, outcomes, and “success stories” over the messy, nuanced realities of people’s lives. The result is a kind of narrative control that feels polished but disconnected, where lived experience is translated into something more palatable, but less truthful. Claudia serves as Communications Manager, MSI Asia Pacific.
This disconnect was powerfully grounded by Nancy Hombo, a midwife and GEDSI (Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion) mentor from Papua New Guinea, whose workplaces her at the frontline of SRHR. She spoke not in abstractions, but in the weight of everyday encounters - with women navigating limited access to healthcare, with cultural expectations that shape reproductive choices, and with systems that often fail to meet people where they are. Nancy’s perspective highlighted a critical gap: the stories that circulate globally about SRHR rarely reflect the realities she witnesses daily. When narratives are created without these voices, they risk becoming not only incomplete but harmful, reinforcing assumptions that overlook the structural and cultural complexities of care.
At the heart of the session was a call to reclaim storytelling as a feminist act - one that resists simplification and insists on authenticity. Dina Chaerani, host of Sex O’Clock News, Family Planning News Network, spoke about the role of media platforms in breaking silences around sexuality and reproductive health. In many contexts, these topics remain taboo, spoken about in whispers or not at all. Dina’s work challenges this silence by creating spaces where conversations about sex, health, and rights are open, accessible, and grounded in lived experience. But she also acknowledged the resistance such work often encounters - from censorship to backlash - revealing how controlling narratives is not only about shaping stories but also about policing what can be said in the first place.
Shobha Shukla, Managing Editor and Executive Director of CNS, brought the discussion back to the structural power of media itself. She emphasised that storytelling is never neutral; it is always shaped by power relations. Who owns media platforms? Who funds them? Who decides what counts as news? These questions are central to understanding why certain narratives dominate while others remain marginal. In the context of SRHR, dominant narratives often prioritise crisis, controversy, or moral panic, sidelining stories that centre autonomy, dignity, and everyday resilience.
Across the conversation, a shared frustration became evident: the reduction of complex human experiences into simplified narratives designed for consumption. Whether through headlines, campaigns, or policy briefs, stories about SRHR are frequently packaged in ways that make them easier to understand - but also easier to misinterpret. This simplification can erase context, strip away nuance, and ultimately distort the realities they claim to represent. Feminist storytelling, as the speakers argued, must resist this pressure. It must hold space for contradiction, for discomfort, and for voices that do not fit neatly into dominant frameworks.
But reclaiming the narrative is not only about correcting misrepresentation; it is about shifting power. It means ensuring that those who live these experiences are not just subjects of stories but authors of them. It means creating platforms where marginalised voices are not mediated or translated beyond recognition, but heard directly, in their own terms. This shift requires more than intention - it requires structural change in how media operates, from editorial practices to funding models.
The emotional core of the session lay in its insistence on humanity. Behind every story about SRHR are individuals navigating deeply personal decisions, often in contexts shaped by inequality, stigma, and limited access to care. When these stories are told without care, or without the voices of those involved, they risk becoming another form of extraction - taking experiences without giving back recognition or agency. Reclaiming the narrative, then, is also about restoring dignity. It is about telling stories that do not just inform or persuade, but respect.
As the conversation unfolded in the Media Lounge, it became clear why this session was positioned before the conference’s main plenary. It was not just setting the stage - it was reframing it. Before policies are debated or strategies are outlined, there must be a reckoning with how stories are told, and whose voices shape them. Without this, even the most well-intentioned efforts risk reproducing the same inequalities they seek to address.
What this session ultimately made clear is that storytelling is not peripheral to SRHR - it is central to it. Narratives shape how issues are understood, how resources are allocated, and how rights are imagined. To reclaim the narrative is to reclaim power - not in an abstract sense, but in the ability to define one’s own story, to speak without distortion, and to be heard without being reduced.
In a media landscape often driven by speed, simplicity, and spectacle, this session offered something different: a pause, a reflection, and a demand for depth. It challenged those in the room - and those listening beyond it - to move beyond representation toward genuine inclusion, where storytelling becomes not a tool of control, but a space of liberation.
Saher Siddiqui - CNS
(Citizen News Service)
