Sadiqa Shirazi knew what the Taliban considered her journalism earlier than they took over Afghanistan. Since 2008, as Shirazi, who was operating a TV and radio station in Kunduz, centered on tales about home violence, ladies’s rights and her training, she and her husband started to obtain demise threats. In 2015, throughout the 5 transient days that the Taliban entered Kunduz, its tv and radio station had been destroyed, and all tools was taken away.
Shirazi, who had fled the capital of Afghanistan on the time, determined to combat again. With the assistance of donors, and a principally ladies’s group of 15, she relaunched Roshni Radio, broadcasting packages from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., together with reside Q&A with listeners.
In 2021, Shirazi, her husband and eight-year-old daughter had already left for Kabul when the Taliban captured Kunduz. “They were calling my husband over and over, asking us to return, and saying they would not harm us,” she stated. But this time, Shirazi stated, she knew to not again down.
Shirazi advised The Indian Express from Canada, “He always accused us of pursuing an American agenda… Now there is no way to work as a journalist in Kunduz, where he is now with his family.” Trying to start out life afresh.” Members of her ladies’s group have additionally been scattered throughout Canada and Pakistan.
A handful of males who had been on Shirazi’s group nonetheless function the radio station. “They have to go by the agenda of the Taliban. They only have Islamic programs now,” she stated.
According to a report by the International Federation of Journalists, which partnered with the Afghan National Journalists’ Union shortly after the Taliban takeover, 160 of the 400 media organizations have needed to shut down, of which about 100 are radio stations. To those that are open, the fundamental guidelines of what can and can’t be broadcast are set by the brand new rulers. Two TV channels run by ladies for feminine viewers have been shut down.
From 2003 to 2021, as Afghanistan tried to search out its democratic middle, at the same time as overseas forces and the Taliban battled for management, the explosion of the media, along with ladies’s training, turned extra noticeable achievements. was one in every of Many ladies joined journalism as a result of it was thought of an honorable job.
Amid stricter guidelines for ladies at work, since final 12 months, so many media homes are not working, with over 2,000 journalists out of labor, 70 per cent of them ladies, in accordance with surveys by journalist associations. Many of those ladies had been the one incomes members of their households. She was killed on the spot in a focused assault on three feminine tv journalists in July 2021, setting the stage for ladies to mass stop jobs when the Taliban got here to energy in August.
120 journalists have been detained, of whom 48 are in Kabul alone. Newspapers are not printed and have all gone on-line.
“The Afghans do not have access to their own information. We are mostly following our news through Western media,” stated one journalist. “The nationwide media is doing self-censorship and the Taliban is monitoring every little thing. Is.”
He stated there was freedom of expression beneath the structure till the Taliban got here to energy. “Based on that, there was a media regulation, and we had our personal entry to data regulation, and an oversight physique to supervise entry to data. It was the very best within the area. But the Taliban ended all that as quickly as they arrived. There is not any regulation now. Only numerous restrictions, ”stated the journalist.
Hundreds of journalists have fled to neighboring Pakistan within the hope of getting visas to a 3rd nation, as a lot of the embassies in Kabul are nonetheless closed.
Mobi Group’s Tolo News, Afghanistan’s best-known channel, is without doubt one of the few media organizations which have survived. The channel’s director Khapolwak Sapai stated that it has not been stopped from doing any story.
“The Taliban have said that they support free media with certain conditions, such as not telling any story against Islamic values, or national values. These can have a wide range of interpretations, and this is causing a lot of confusion. We have told them that we should have a media law, otherwise it will be difficult to define the boundaries,” stated Sapai.
On August 15, 2021, the day of the Taliban takeover, Sapai recalled that till 4 p.m. he had no anchor within the studio as everybody went right into a panic. For a lot of the day, the TV channel launched new variations of the day gone by’s information.
“Around 3 pm, we got to know that (President) Ashraf Ghani has left the country. The presence of the Taliban in the western part of the city and the fear of armed criminals in Kabul already causing panic over Kabul made me wary of my editorial decision,” stated Sapai, who studied journalism at Kabul University within the Sixties. in, and described the final 20 years as the very best years for journalism in Afghanistan.
A male presenter finally agreed to return to workplace, and the station broke the information that the president had fled. The channel requested Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid to talk reside and reassure those who it might be a peaceable transition and that no legal component can be allowed to make the most of the confusion.
But over the following few days, Tolo misplaced 90 % of his workforce as each female and male staff stop, a few of them transferring overseas, some as a result of his relations didn’t enable him to go away the home. “As the only person here, I had to keep the channel running, and I had to hire new collaborators,” he stated.
Sapai stated it was a possibility to inject recent blood. The channel has recruited extra ladies than earlier than. It has 20 provincial correspondents, eight of whom are ladies, and Kabul has 20 ladies, working as journalists, presenters and camerapersons.
Looking again, Sapai stated the primary few weeks beneath the Taliban had been in all probability straightforward. A Taliban spokesman additionally agreed to go on tv with feminine presenter Beheshta Arghand, whom Sapai stated he hoped. The picture made waves around the globe. But then the Taliban enforced a strict gown code, together with face coverings for feminine presenters. For a number of days, Tolo’s male presenters additionally wore a face masks within the air as a mark of protest.
Waheeda Hassan, a reporter for the information channel employed in Tolo’s latest recruitment drive, stated she works to encourage different ladies to do the identical. “The Taliban wants to remove women from society. Going on television is a way to send the message that Afghan women still exist, and to give women the confidence that they too can come out of their homes,” Hassan stated.
Still, Hassan stated, life beneath the Taliban had turn out to be unpredictable, particularly for ladies. Being a journalist who must be out and about, she needed to run the gauntlet day-after-day.
“We do not know what decree they are going to bring next. If you are alone in the car, they ask where is your Mehram? If you’re with a male coworker, how do you relate to him? Every day, a different rule. One day, they may say that a woman’s voice is not halal,” Hassan stated.
“My family tells me this is a dangerous job, they don’t want me to do it. But who will raise voice for women if all women stay at home and remain silent,” she stated.
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At a provincial radio station, an modern youth broadcaster, who didn’t need to be recognized, stated she had discovered a option to discuss ladies’s rights by invoking faith firstly of every program.
Despite the combat, the senior journalist stated Afghan journalism is now going through a triple whammy – monetary insecurity, bodily safety and lack of capability. “Many leaders of Afghan journalism have left the country. Those left behind are in panic, and feeling demotivated,” he stated.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
