Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban has imposed numerous restrictions on Afghanistan’s media, but especially on women’s presence in it.
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Rukhshana Media spoke with journalists about their experience of working under Taliban rule. Their stories relay an encroaching sense of doom that women are being eradicated from the media in Afghanistan.
According to the World Press Freedom Index presented by Reporters Without Borders, Afghanistan has fallen 26 places to rank 178 in 2024, after North Korea.
It began with smaller directives early on, just after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.
By May 2022, the Taliban decreed women cannot participate in plays and television series, and female presenters must cover their faces except for their eyes.
In some provinces, the publication of women’s images and broadcasting their voices in the media had already been prohibited.
For media workers, the consequences of upsetting the Taliban were serious. If programs are broadcast contrary to the Taliban’s ideology in any way, female editors are arrested and interrogated.
Many female journalists have decided its not worth the risks and ceased to work in the profession. Others admit to hiding their identifies and working in secret. Some hide their press badges in their bags out of fear of being identified by Taliban members.
And others from all regions of the country said that due to fear of arrest and imprisonment by Taliban forces, they have resorted to self-censorship.
Disagreement swiftly stamped out
Twenty-four-year-old Monisa* has four years of experience as a producer at a local radio station in Balkh province. However, she is frustrated by rules preventing her from conducting interviews with men on radio or television.
“We are not allowed to invite male guests or talk to male listeners on our programs, and if a man calls, I have to hang up as soon as I hear their voice,” she said.
Monisa’s radio program was suspended a few days ago by Taliban intelligence due to a discussion about barring girls and women from attending school.
“In one of the programs, a guest talked about the closure of schools for girls, and I simply said, ‘Hopefully, the day will come when schools will reopen for girls again.’ After the program aired, Taliban intelligence summoned the editor-in-chief and told him that I no longer have the right to broadcast this program,” she said.
She said they’ve been warned not to even talk about the restrictions imposed on them or the media outlet would be shut down.
Monisa said the directives had hurt the stories they would normally cover and there had been far fewer reports and news about women’s issues in local media.
Shafiqa*, 24, has five years of experience working with local media outlets in Jawzjan province.
She said that local journalists are required to sign a commitment letter from the province’s Information and Culture Directorate, pledging to avoid reporting contrary to the interests of the Taliban and to observe hijab in the workplace.
“If girls and women want to work in radio, they must have a written permit from the Information and Culture Directorate, which is not easily given to them, and we must sign a commitment letter, which I believe is against media law as it prevents us from writing impartially. But they [Taliban] only consider their interests,” she said.
Shafiqa said working hours for male and female journalists in media are regulated based on gender-segregated rules, under which women and men are not allowed to be present in the radio station at the same time.
“Women and girls are only allowed to enter the radio station during program with a female colleague, and otherwise, they are not allowed to enter, and when women work, men are not allowed to enter,” she said.
Meanwhile, some female reporters in Herat province say that despite having written permission to work as reporters from the Information and Culture Directorate, the local Taliban administration do not make information accessible to female journalists.
Nazanin* is one of these journalists.
She said that the gender discrimination in accessing public resources and Taliban local offices in Herat has limited her work.
“In the current situation, the value that should be placed on the work of female journalists is not adequately recognized,” she said.
“Government sources are less responsive to female reporters than to men, and public sources, due to fear of reprisal by the Taliban for being interviewed by a female journalist, refrain from interviews and conversations, or suggest that female journalists should speak with female sources.”
Nazanin said that alongside discrimination in access to resources, media outlets themselves have discriminated against women by not implying them due to the challenges.
Unlike many of her peers, Nazanin has managed to retain a paid job in the media, but she is aware that she earns only half the salary of a male reporter.
The Taliban also engage in overt oversight of women’s employment in media. The morality police, intelligence, and security forces regularly visit media offices unannounced to monitor them, inspecting the segregation of men’s and women’s newsrooms and women’s attire.
Zahra* a media worker in the western region of the country, said the Taliban intelligence closely monitors the content of media reports.
She said reporters are not allowed to produce reports on subjects related to the situation of women under Taliban rule or reports where people criticize the Taliban.
She said that producing reports that “cross Taliban red lines” leads to interrogation and even arrest.
“There are severe restrictions and surveillance on our work. Even if a reporter manages to gather their sources after lots of struggles, they still cannot produce a report with critical content or about women. They are summoned, interrogated, and even imprisoned, and they face ugly and intimidating treatment,” she said.
Zahira, 26, had worked as a presenter on social programs in local media in Balkh province for three years before the fall of the Afghan government. But after the Taliban began to restrict women’s freedoms, she became unemployed and confined to her home.
“The media where I worked reduced its staff due to financial problems and fired six employees, including myself, stating that they couldn’t pay our salaries. I became unemployed,” she said.
Zahira said that despite continuous efforts, she has been unable to find employment in any media outlet.
Her confinement at home has led to mental and emotional challenges.
“Being confined to my home has led to a decline in my social relationships, and most of the time, I feel depressed, isolated, and agitated,” she said.
“Each day, enduring this situation becomes more difficult for me.”
Authorities refuse to talk to women journalists
The Taliban has also limited access to female reporters having direct access to the group for interviews or sharing information.
The group’s authorities refuse to engage in interviews with female journalists. Monsia, Shafiqa, Zahra, and Nazanin all have firsthand experience of this treatment.
Despite their repeated efforts to obtain information through local officials and by attending press briefings, their attempts have been ineffective.
“For every interview, you need a written permission from Information and Culture. But even if you get the permission letter, many government institutions do not accept it because you’re a women,” Shafiqa said.
Monisa has also experienced this. She hasn’t been allowed to participate in conferences, Taliban member programs, or meetings of the Taliban’s religious police with media officials and employees.
“None of their offices agree to interview with women,” she said.
Nazanin talked about the participation of female journalists in Taliban press conferences, saying that women are asked to introduce themselves in coordination with a male colleague’s office during the meetings.
She said the Taliban have explained this practice by saying, “We prevent women from attending press conferences to preserve dignity and chastity.”
The situation has forced some female journalists to work for media outlets for free. At least two female journalists in Kabul, with years of reporting experience, have said that because they don’t have equal job opportunities with men, they work voluntarily for their media outlet or have gone months without pay.
Sooman Rahmati*, 24, works as a journalist in Kabul.
She said she has been working voluntarily for six months, despite having worked as a journalist for four years in Kabul’s visual media outlets.
Marwa Amini, another journalist, said she hasn’t received her salary from her office for eight months.
“My mother works as a tailor, and most of the time she gives me money for transportation to the office. Sometimes, I even must walk to the office because I don’t have money,” she said.
“There are no job opportunities for women in the media anymore, so I have no choice but to cope with these challenges or quit working altogether.”
The drastic drop in women working in Afghan media
After 32 months of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, more than seventy percent of female journalists have abandoned the profession in western, northern, and central Afghanistan. This includes Herat, Ghor, Badghis, Balkh, Faryab, Jawzjan, Bamyan, and Daikundi provinces, according to Rukhshana Media’s research.
In the western provinces, the number of women actively working in the media has decreased from around 160 journalists to 48. Under the previous government, about 100 women were working in media in Herat with another 60 across Farah, Badghis, Nimroz, and Ghor provinces.
Today this figure has decreased to only 40 journalists in Herat and Badghis, six journalists in Ghor, and two journalists in Nimroz. In Farah province, no female journalists remain.
In the northern zone, comprising Balkh, Jawzjan, and Faryab provinces, the number of women working in the media has decreased from around 220 journalists under the previous government to only 61 today.
There were 120 female journalists in Balkh, 50 in Faryab, and 50 journalists and media workers in Jawzjan. Under Taliban rule, these figures have decreased to 35, 21, and five journalists respectively.
In the country’s two central provinces, Bamyan and Daikundi, the number of women active in the media has decreased from around 21 to six.
During the republic, there were 12 female journalists and media workers in Bamyan and nine journalists and media workers in Daikundi. Now there’s only three in Bamyan and three in Daikundi.
Exact statistics for other provinces were not available.
Of all the provinces, Kabul continues to have the most number of working journalists.
President of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) Hujatullah Mujaddadi, who is based in Germany, said the association counted about 396 female journalists and media workers still operating in Kabul, and 601 in all Afghanistan. Before the Taliban, he estimated this figure had been more than 2500 women.
Founder of the Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization Hamed Obaidi, based in Kabul, said his organisation counted about 502 female journalists still working in all Afghanistan.
A hostile environment for media workers
The Afghanistan Journalists Center (AfJC) said in its annual report on media violations that in the past year it had recorded 136 violations of media freedom and journalists, including 73 threats and 64 arrests.
The organization stated that the basis for most of them was at least 17 Taliban media “guidelines” that mostly contradict the country’s media laws that were in place before the Taliban returned to power.
The AfJC further found that apart from the country-wide decrees issued by the Taliban, there are local rules being issued by Taliban representatives in Helmand, Kandahar, and Khost provinces. These localised rules include prohibiting the broadcast of women’s voices, taking photos of women, conducting video interviews with women, and making phone calls to female listeners.
These local rules are permitted and are offshoots of the general attitude of the Taliban towards women in the media.
Note*: Names are changed due to security reasons.
