Clara Zid, March 2026
Girls cannot study, women cannot work or speak outside, even windows are prohibited. Afghanistan is one of the most oppressive places in the world for women. Zahra Joya calls it “gender apartheid”, a system designed to erase half of the population.
“It’s a crime against humanity and we feel betrayed,” she explains. “I am heartbroken when I see the silence of Western governments.”
32 years old Zahra Joya is the founder and Editor-in-chief of the digital outlet Rukhshana Media, publishes stories about Afghan women by Afghan women. Rukhshana consists of a team of 17 journalists, most of them women in hiding in Afghanistan.
Some of the journalists have university degrees, some of them were in the middle of their education when the Taliban banned women from schools and some of them are just starting to learn the profession.
The personal risk for the reporters of Rukhshana is extreme. In the eyes of the Taliban, they are “double-criminals”, first for being women who work, and second for being journalists who expose the truth. According to Reporters Without Borders, 80% of women journalists have lost their jobs in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the rule.
“My colleagues are very brave and talented,” Zahra says. “If something happens to them, they could be tortured or even killed.” They cannot say publicly that they are journalists and they interview sources in hiding.
“It’s their way of saying ‘No’ to the Taliban, to this misogynistic policy,” Zahra explains. “I am proud of my colleagues and also of so many other women that are trying to find ways to overcome the restrictions imposed by the Taliban.”
Rukhshana is part of the global resistance of Afghan women, who have dozens of secret schools and seek education online. “It is very important for us to remember that even in a dark situation, women still can resist, women can still can stand for themselves and their values,” Zahra says.
Rukhshana publishes documented narratives, investigative reports and personal stories of women, that are rarely seen or heard in official media. Their readers include women inside the country, women in exile and human rights activists. Zahra regrets that they publish “a mirror of sadness,” a reality where women have lost their rights, the control of their body and a lot of their achievements.
“We are under pressure but still we have our voice”
The name Rukhshana is a reference to a 19-year-old girl with this name, who was accused of adultery in a rural town of Afghanistan and was stoned to death in 2015.
Zahra defines the outlet with three missions: to highlight the suffering that women are facing in Afghanistan; to make an archive of human rights violations, and to say to our audience that no matter how much we are under pressure, we have our voice.
Zahra herself is a model of this resilience: when she was a young girl, during the first Taliban regime, with the help of her uncle, she disguised herself as a boy to be allowed to attend school.
Years later, at the age of 18, she moved from her village to Kabul to study law. “At university I met many female students from all over Afghanistan,” she explains. “I felt I needed to tell their stories.” She started working as a journalist while studying law. Soon she understood that women’s voices were missing from the news.
She worked in many newsrooms where she was the only woman. Male colleagues told her that women did not have enough capacity to build a narrative. Zahra disagreed and in 2020 she founded Rukhshana Media as a platform where female journalists could work, and a space where Afghan women could speak freely.
“We have to be careful and take extra steps to protect our safety”
In 2021, the Taliban returned to power and Zahra was forced into exile. Today she lives in London, far from Kabul but closely tied to it. “Physically I am outside,” she says. “Mentally I am inside every day.”
Each day she is focused on her colleagues in Afghanistan that are communicating with Rukhshana in secret, always operating under danger and risk and without knowing if their cover has been revealed.
“It is very stressful, a life in constant fear,” Zahra says. “We have to be careful and take extra steps to protect our safety.”
Rukhshana has a few guiding principles: always prioritize your own safety first; use Virtual Private Networks and secure communication channels and work individually. Her team of journalists don’t know each other inside the country to prevent the Taliban from breaking the whole network if one of them is captured.
Caution also extends to the publication of stories: “It has happened several times that we have published a very sensitive story on our website, and hours later we receive a concerned message from our source that the risk for our colleagues is too high, then we have immediately taken the article down and deleted it from the website.”
“Since 2021 we have seen more than one hundred decrees that restrict women’s freedom”
In January 2026, the Taliban quietly approved a new penal code. In its 119 articles, the code institutionalizes violence against women as a tool of social discipline. Under this law, an Afghan man can serve as little as 15 days in jail for breaking his wife’s arm. By contrast, mistreating a camel carries a sentence of five months.
“It is not new,” says Zahra. “Since 2021, we have seen the Taliban’s “promotion of virtue” law and more than one hundred decrees that restrict women’s freedom. This new law is designed to strengthen power structures and social control.”
The legal text comes to use the terms “master” and “slave” to define the relationship between women and men. According to Zahra, this ideas may come from old patriarchal traditions in Afghanistan. “Turning them into official legal language makes them formal and permanent.”
The direct effects of this code on women are wide, Zahra says: “Less access to justice, more fear of reporting violence, and stronger legal dependence on male family members.” According to Zahra, many women feel that legal protection has decreased and that filing a complaint could simply put them in more danger.
For example, the law requires a woman to prove severe injuries before a judge to seek justice. Assuming that the judge is loyal to the Taliban, “even if she has medical evidence or witnesses, the interpretation of the law may still favor the accused, and this discourages women from seeking justice.”
“It’s sad to see the world’s reaction to this horrific and barbaric behavior”
Zahra is concerned that the new framework will be used by the Taliban to deny the existence of gender violence, since few abused women will take the risk to report a crime given that the perpetrator is free after merely 15 days. “Society receives the message that gender-based violence is not taken seriously and this leads to the invisibility of violence against women.”
Rukhshana and Zahra have been awarded numerous human rights prizes but, despite international awards, they feel alone.
“It’s sad to see the lack of solidarity from human rights and feminist organizations, they are silent and watching us,” she says. “It’s sad to see the world’s reaction to this horrific and barbaric behavior.”
Only younger generations give Zahra hope. “They don’t give up, they stand for their values, they are raising their voice, working together and sharing their information.” But it’s not a total hope. “Honestly, it is very difficult to be fully hopeful.”
Before the interview ends, we ask Zahra what her message to Western governments is. She says “Listen to the young generation of Afghanistan, we are tired, we need peace. Stop supporting terrorists, stop sending guns and bullets to the Taliban.”
Rukhshana Media is hosted with Virtualroad.org since 2025.