Abandoned: the cruel fate of female journalists in Afghanistan

By Raihan Tamanna

Sima, on the other end of the phone line, was crying as she told me about the lack of food for her child. 

She spoke of the world’s silence in the face of the Taliban’s cruelty toward women: “I can’t go outside, and I have no other means to provide for my family.” 

The Taliban has taken away the possibility of work for female journalists, along with the right to even leave home unescorted.

Sima said that after two years, she has spent all the savings she had left from her working days as a journalist, and her family sometimes doesn’t have bread to eat. I listened to her through my own tears.

Before the Taliban took over, Sima was a successful journalist, supporting her family. She has a child, and her husband has been bedridden for a long time due to disability. Like a significant number of female journalists in Afghanistan, Sima was the main breadwinner for her family.

The Taliban’s extremist and discriminatory view of women’s rights and their activities has become a lethal weapon against Afghan society. This group has closed almost all social, political, cultural, and economic doors to Afghan women. The impacts of these widespread deprivations threaten not only the current Afghan society but also the future of this society and the generations to come.

Journalists in Afghanistan, because of the nature of their work, are more threatened by the Taliban than any other group. After the Taliban’s takeover of the country, many journalists were able to escape with the support of foreign countries, but many others remain trapped. According to reports from news sources and international organizations, over 80 journalists have been arrested by the Taliban, and almost all independent media outlets have been shut down. 

Female journalists face the toughest challenge. Even during the Republic era, they had to fight on multiple fronts to defend their rights. When the law allowed them to work, the traditional structures of society acted against them, and a significant portion of their energy was spent battling backward social traditions. 

Now, the Taliban have tied the fate of women to an unparalleled level of deprivation and restriction. In the eyes of these extremists, female journalists are considered targets for many reasons. As part of their job, they had to gather news every day on events happening both inside and outside Afghanistan. They were constantly exposing the terrorist face of the Taliban amid relentless attacks on schools, institutions, and civil society.

After the Taliban took over, most female journalists lost their jobs. Worse, the Taliban hunted many down. Those who remain in the country have been forced to live in hiding, terrified of being arrested or killed. Some have even fabricated their identities and are trying to survive in remote areas.

These women have not only lost the ability to reach for their dreams, but even their bread has been taken from them, and they must come to terms with a life of hunger and despair. 

Because there is no free media inside Afghanistan, it’s nearly impossible to access reports about these female journalists. The only information comes from occasional personal contacts with colleagues and close associates who sometimes inform us about their situation.

No one knows how many female journalists have had their identities exposed and been killed by the Taliban. But what has reached the media shows that dozens of female journalists and civil society activists have been murdered. 

Based on this information, on Jan. 24, 2024, Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, requested the arrest of Mullah Hibatullah, the Taliban leader, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the group’s minister of justice, on charges of crimes against humanity. In response to this request, the Taliban leader imposed even more pressure on Afghan women by issuing more decrees against them.

Hopefully, justice will one day prevail. But it may well be too late for female journalists like Sima.

About the author

Raihan Tamanna is an Afghan journalist now living in Canada.