Zahra Nader, the editor-in-chief of Zan Times, a digital news website on Afghan women and LGBTI+’s, founded by a group of women journalists and writers from inside and outside Afghanistan, talks about how Zan Times has come into being, the state of rights and freedoms in Afghanistan and its representation in the world press.
Zan Times was founded after the Taliban took over in August 2021. Reporting in Dari and English, it has a special focus on rights and freedoms in Afghanistan, especially those of women, LGBTI+s and environment.
Afghan journalist and the editor-in-chief of Zan Times, Zahra Nader gave an interview to Bianet, how and for what purpose Zan Times, a women-led newsroom reporting on the situation in Afghanistan, has come into being, the state of rights and freedoms in Afghanistan and its representation in the world press.
Nader says, “Half of the society turned into criminals overnight only for the fact of being from a different gender and sex,” adding that the intersectionality of their women and journalist have affected them so much:
“As women journalists in Afghanistan, we have always faced discrimination. But I think this is the time that we need to stand up and speak about the truth of how we really live in Afghanistan, particularly now given that being a woman is being a criminal by default.”
‘We have the responsability’
Nader explains the purpose of the establishment of the Zan Times as follows:
“We are women journalists and we are able to speak their language. We lived there. We know the culture, we know the sensitivities, we know how it is easy for women to talk to each other, and to talk about what is really happening in their lives. We find this to be a very powerful way of trying to come together first. So, we talk to each other. As women journalists coming from Afghanistan, we have that responsibility to support our sisters in Afghanistan and to tell their stories, at least, and make sure that their struggle and their resistance is not buried.
We do not have a lot of women’s history in Afghanistan. That is because we did not have many women writers able to tell their stories, those narratives for the next generation. The least we can do in this situation is to tell their stories, the stories of their struggle, their stories of how difficult it is to live as women in Afghanistan when the de facto authority basically banned your existence and your participation in public life. That is why we exist. This is our responsibility. We want to be there when women are under attack. We want to be there to tell what is happening in their lives.”
Nader briefly describes the situation of rights and freedoms in Afghanistan and its reflection in the international press as follows:
“As for the role of the media, I really believe that the media has an important role to play by allowing people to really know what is happening to women in Afghanistan and how their own countries, especially those involved in Afghanistan, are responsible for this. It is the role of the media and journalists to bring this story to the world and to say that this is not tolerable and we should not be tolerating this. Yet we are not hearing a lot of stories about what is really happening in Afghanistan for women and other marginalized groups.”
‘Feminist movements all around the world should be in solidarity with Afghanistan’
“I think when the media is trying to cover the story of Afghanistan, they portray us as victims. But we are so tired of being depicted as victims,” says Nader, emphasizing the following point in the meantime:
“Afghan women have been resisting; they are resistors, they are survivors, they are fighters. That should be told in a way that shows how they live in and bear this situation, how they make it through another day, which is an act of resistance for women in this situation.”
Nader has a message for women’s rights activists in Turkey and all over the world:
“I really want to ask for their solidarity, for their support, because this is the time when sisterhood and solidarity really matter. This is the time when we need support because we do not have any other means to fight back.
Afghan women have very little: they have lost their jobs, their ability to fully participate in their own society, to make decisions about their future, about their own bodies, and about their own clothes.
This is the time that we need feminist movement all around the world to stand up together and say, “Hey, this is moving the bar. Now we hear this country, then another, is intensifying their attacks on women’s rights.”
Source: Bianet English