Growing up in Afghanistan was very hard as a girl: we didn’t have the right to an education or freedom of movement. I grew up in a village in a remote area in Bamiyan Province. When I was a child, the Taliban ran the country, and they banned education for women and girls.
But I was lucky enough to have a supportive family. My father stood behind me and helped me to get an education. I dressed as a boy and walked two hours to school every day. If anyone called me a girl at that time I reacted very strongly. I told them “I’m not a girl, I am a boy”. I just wanted to be free, to get fresh air and an education.
Following the ousting of the Taliban from power in 2001, life changed for a lot for women and girls in Afghanistan. We started being able to live freely in society as women. I was allowed to go to school without any issues. I finished my school in Bamiyan, graduated from high school and then moved to Kabul and started my bachelor’s degree.
When I heard other women’s stories, I knew we had to do something
In Kabul, I met lots of other girls from across Afghanistan. Everybody had a different story, but we shared stories of domestic violence, harassment, gender-based violence. That was when I realized there was a bigger issue among Afghan women and that we had to do something. Alongside my studies, I started to work as a volunteer journalist with a local news agency in Kabul.
Every morning, I would see hundreds of girls dressed up beautifully on the way to school or to work, ready with their pens, notebooks and textbooks.
There was a lot of passion in the young generation in Afghanistan at that time. They wanted to rebuild Afghanistan and bring change to society. I got so much energy from seeing their hope, determination, desire and passion, particularly girls. Unfortunately, nowadays this has disappeared in front of our eyes.
I established Rukhshana Media as a newsroom with a group of women journalists in Kabul before the Taliban took power.
The name Rukhshana comes from a real story of a 19-year-old girl who fled from a forced marriage in 2015, in central Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the Taliban arrested her, and she was killed in the most brutal way. We named our organization Rukhshana in her memory so that when somebody reads our news, they will know her name.
As a journalist, it wasn’t safe for me to stay in Afghanistan
When the Taliban entered the capital in August 2021, it was a horrible day for women. Basically, all women were forced to flee from the city to their homes. They left everything: their offices, their staff. I did too.
At first, I and some other journalists decided to stay in the country. We thought it would be okay for us because we were just ordinary people doing normal work.
But very soon the Taliban started to punish journalists. I had a media organization, so I realized that there was no way for me to stay in the country. Two weeks after the Taliban took power, I left Kabul. So, since August 2021, I have been based in London.
Rukhshana Media is registered as a charity in the UK but we continue to operate from Afghanistan as well, with colleagues in the country. Right now, I’m proud to say that we have a mostly women’s team of journalists on the ground in Afghanistan. We publish Afghan women’s stories. There are countless untold stories, and we want to cover as much as we can.
This is not an easy task: my colleagues are in hiding. Working as a journalist, particularly as a woman journalist, is basically a crime in many parts of Afghanistan. They are taking a high risk to tell the truth. They are brave, determined, and they are resisting in a time when the Taliban wants to remove women from Afghanistan’s society.
Their courage brings me hope that we will bring some change. I think it is our responsibility to break the silence and break the cycle of violence. This is the time for the women of Afghanistan to raise their voices.
Making noise for Afghan women
We want to make noise for those who feel they are a forgotten community. Most women in Afghanistan do not have access to the internet or to technology. The women we reach are very interested in sharing their daily life experiences under the Taliban regime and are keen to read and share the stories we publish. They do not want to be silenced.
For example, after the Taliban took power, they started to punish women. So, a small group of brave women in west Kabul started to protest and write messages of resistance on the walls. They filmed their bravery and sent the videos to us.
These are the stories we publish. Stories of domestic violence, gender inequality in the home, the Taliban and harsh behaviour towards women in Afghan society. Men are also writing about the different kinds of violence they are facing.
The Taliban must be held to account and gender apartheid must be recognized
The day the ICC prosecutor announced the Taliban arrest warrants was the best day for the women of Afghanistan. I spoke with a few women in the country; they celebrated that day. They said after more than three years of punishment, violence and atrocities by the Taliban, they finally heard some good news.
I hope the investigation of the Taliban’s crime against humanity of gender persecution can go further and faster now, because we are running out of time. We have already lost time for many girls to get their education.
The women of Afghanistan are paying a heavy price. The situation is not sustainable.
Codifying ‘gender apartheid’ in international law will help protect the human rights of women in Afghanistan. The End Gender Apartheid Campaign is asking the international community to recognize gender apartheid. With this recognition, we can protect women’s lives and the future of Afghanistan.
What you can do to help end human rights violations in Afghanistan
After four years under Taliban rule, the country remains a hotbed of unchecked and unabated human rights abuses. Sign the petition now to demand accountability.
About Zahra Joya
Zahra Joya is an award-winning Afghan journalist and the founder of Rukhshana Media, an online news outlet reporting on the daily realities of women’s lives in Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, Afghanistan has been in a downward spiral of human rights violations. Women are banned from almost all aspects of public life. Abuses continue with absolute impunity and victims are left with no recourse to justice.
Below, Zahra recounts her story from growing up as a girl in Afghanistan, coming to terms with the scale of oppression and violence against women in the country and dedicating her life’s work to raising Afghan women’s voices.
