Source: Amnesty International –
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.
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.