Life of women journalists under Taliban rule

Behruz Azad

With the invasion of Afghanistan by US and Allies, the country experienced a gigantic boom of electronic and print media, mostly funded overtly or covertly by Western and regional countries’ embassies. However, in Afghanistan with highest rate illiterates, TV and radio consecutively attracted majority of the people. In 2018, the Ministry of Information and Culture of Afghanistan reported that 203 TV channels, 366 radio channels, 72 daily newspapers, 354 weekly newspapers, 344 periodical journals and 73 news agencies have been registered with ministry, where they should obtain their licenses. Of course, even the most so-called independent TV channels were/are funded by Western governments, especially USA, whereas, others were getting their expenses from Pakistan, Iran and Turkey governments to promote Sunni and Shia fundamentalism, and support the interests of these governments through their proxies in the country.

Although, majority of the owners and CEOs of these media agencies, especially TV channels, have gained millions of US dollars and even owning their luxury villas in abroad or financially supported some of the parliamentary candidates, the journalists, as employee of these media outlets, in particular those reporting from the field, have even faced life threats: killed while reporting from the war zones; kidnapped and beheaded by Taliban and other terrorist groups; killed during suicide bombings and explosions; disappeared; beaten and humiliated by the bodyguards of high officials, in case of reporting their crimes or corruptions.

With the takeover of Taliban, many of the businesses collapsed and so is the media agencies, and worst of all, Taliban banned women from working outside, and their sharp swords targeted the women journalists the most.

R, graduated from Journalism Faculty of Kabul University and with one decade of experience with different media outlets, has mostly reported on human rights violations and now owns a news web page.

Soon, after the takeover of Kabul by Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, the media man of this terrorist group, who tries to sketch a moderate face for the Taliban, announced that women should stay at home until the unknown time. And R, an investigative journalist on human rights violations, now being forced into becoming a victim herself, was one of the women to walk into the streets to protest against this inhumane order.

R remembers:

“On September 7, 2021, I was part of a women group to participate in a protest in front of the 3^rd Police Station of Kabul city, now housed Taliban militia, and also reporting the protest. A Taliban militant attacked me from behind, snatching my camera, trying to break its lens, and then took away the camera.”

R loses her conscious from the attack and fells on the road, until a passerby comes for her rescue. Gaining her conscious, she notices her attacker standing a few meters away. She goes to him and asks for the return of her camera, but the Taliban militant responds, by calling her a prostitute trying to vilify the Islamic Emirate. He forces her to sit in a bus and leave the area, an act to disperse the protesters. She contacts some journalists’ associations to force Taliban to hand back her camera, but no success, and ultimately loses the most precious thing in her life. She talks about the camera with tears in her eyes, as if she has lost a child or a pet. She says, “they tried to take away my identity.”

This is not the first time that R has been beaten to threatened. She talks of humiliations, she and her fellow women journalists have faced. “Being an investigative journalist to report on atrocities against women,” she adds, “I have been threatened directly or indirectly by warlords, parliamentarians, senators and high official in the previous regime as well.”

“I don’t see much difference between both regimes,” she continues, “they both have patriarchal mentality and consider women as a device to give birth to children and stay behind the walls.”

Beaten and humiliated, but R doesn’t lose hope and also didn’t join the vast caravan of journalists to leave the country. She vows to continue with her struggle, the struggle against a theocratic regime and the struggle against a feudal and patriarchal family and society. She continues to report on women’s fight against Taliban and the overall dire situation of Afghan women in Taliban rule.

ANHA