Retrospective 2021: How to be (woman) journalist in Afghanistan, under the Taliban?Retrospective Actu

On August 15, 2021 is a historic day that the editorial staff of Tolonews managed to cover, even though the majority of the editorial staff fled the country precisely for the Taliban.

You should know that Tolonews is a chain that was regularly threatened and even targeted by the Taliban during the war.In 2018 in particular, following an attack claimed by the Taliban, two journalists are killed, a cameraman and a channel reporter.It is therefore a chain that had everything to fear from their return to power.And indeed, a lot of journalists left the editorial staff on the 15, 16 and 17th.At one point, there were only three employees in the channel, a member of the management, a presenter and a cameraman.And this day of the 15th, they manage to stay on the air, to keep the antenna, it was a wish of this member of the Management.

They manage to stay on the air continuously, because it is a continuous news channel, it was the wish to not have a black screen so as not to create even more panic at such a critical moment.They therefore succeeded: at 18 hours, they have a newspaper.Today, this presenter fled Afghanistan, as the vast majority of the editorial staff and like so many other Afghans who were afraid of this Taliban's advance.And he was therefore replaced by other journalists, by new journalists, young journalists who dare to work, including Tahmina Osmani, 22, who today presents the morning and two short newspapers at 1 p.m. and 11 a.m.

A woman who presents the newspapers

Seen from here, very clearly, it seems surprising that a woman presents the newspaper while the Taliban took over.And this is an obviously very complicated situation.Regarding women's law, since as the Taliban government is a new government, there are not yet new specific rules, there are not yet new laws, there are not yet specific punishments,We are going to say, but it remains a very disturbing situation, if only because of the climate of fear which makes lots of women no longer dare to do certain things.

That is to say that nothing is strictly prohibited, but there is still a kind of self-censorship for fear of the Taliban, for fear of the soldiers who are on the street, to see how they could react if theyFor example saw a single woman walking.But women in the streets of Kabul, for example, are still.They are not at all in burqa, we have women in jeans with scarves that let their hair pass, but we also have women who dare for example go to the swimming pool, who no longer dare to play sports.Again, it is not strictly prohibited, but they no longer dare to do it.

In fact, women can still work, but many have been intimidated and no longer dare to do so.They can still play sports, but many no longer dare to do it.They can go out alone in the street without "maram", that is to say without guard, but many do not dare to do it either.There are these intimidation in the street and that's what scares many Afghanes.