Afghanistan: Distressed Afghan Women Journalists Need Urgent Help as Life Under Taliban Becomes Increasingly Difficult
October 24, 2024 - Afghanistan
Photo Courtesy: The Associated Press
Women Press Freedom is alarmed at the unimaginable distress and threats that Afghan women journalists and activists are enduring in the country with many of them reaching out to us to share their disturbing ordeal.
CFWIJ, since August 2021, has evacuated and assisted at least 800 journalists, women leaders and activists to safety. We continue to document and highlight the cases of threats to women journalists there. But numerous more cases await redressal with individuals facing serious threats in the country. WPF’s 5-year data shows at least 33 cases of threats to women journalist which includes the murder of at least seven till date.
These women journalists, who are forced to live under the tyrannical rule of the Taliban, are residing in their homeland in the midst of constant intimidations, pressures, censorship, oppressive laws, violence, harassment and immense risk to their lives and that to their families.
The instances have been directly reported to us with their testimonies detailing the gruesome torture endured, severity and seriousness of their state of being under the oppressive regime. A journalist also reported about her fingers being cut during a crossfire in the midst of a deadly attack. Another informed of receiving death threats and harm to her family. They live in constant fear of imprisonment, harassment, violence and even death for merely doing their job under imaginable circumstances.
Life for journalists and Afghanistan’s overall press freedom situation under the Taliban has remained susceptible to dangers and challenges ever since the Fall of Kabul in August 2021. The Taliban government has stripped these journalists of their right to work freely, silence them via repressive laws and bar women from participating in public life. Some of the women journalists, who continue to report important stories amid the threats, face grave risks to their lives to amplify the voices of those who are voiceless.
We urge the international community to prioritize the safety of these women journalists, advocate for press freedom in Afghanistan and offer urgent support to protect their lives. Women Press Freedom stands in solidarity with Afghan women journalists and resolves to highlight their plight so their voices are not erased from the country’s media landscape.
We demand authorities in the region to stop weaponizing the law to attack journalists and undermine press freedom. We also call for their immediate release and for them to be allowed to work freely without any fear of retaliation.
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