Foundation Advocates for Afghan Journalists

After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, they destroyed the idea of a free press in the country. Close to 60% of journalists all across the country are no longer employed, and three-fourths of them are women.

Fahim Dashty was a veteran reporter who founded one of the largest newspapers in the country, the Kabul Weekly, as well as a leader for the Afghanistan National Journalists Union. Dashty was killed during a clash in the Panjshir province a few months after the Taliban took over Kabul.

His wife, Sayara, and 19-year-old daughter, Marwa, now reside in Canada, but kept in touch with Dashty’s colleagues. With the hope of upholding Dashty’s long-lasting impacts, they created the Fahim Dashty Foundation (FDF) to provide resources and refuge to reporters still working in Afghanistan.

“Presently, the state of press freedom in Afghanistan is dire,” Sayara said. “The Taliban's efforts to control the free press involve not only imposing censorship but also coercing media outlets to disseminate false information provided by them.”

In September 2021, the Taliban released “11 rules of journalism,” enabling the government to practice prior review and restraint on all media publications. Authorities have used these rules to target hundreds of journalists.

“[The Kabul Weekly office] was mine and my brother’s hangout place,” Marwa said. “[Dashty] worked incredibly hard on that newspaper and poured his everything into that. I think that we're losing him every day because we saw how much he worked, he sacrificed — the late hours, everything he built to have some semblance of free media in Afghanistan. The fact that it's being ripped apart, piece by piece, every day is a lot, so we decided to open the foundation to help [Afghan journalists] in any way we can.”

Almost all women who are reporters have had to leave their jobs or flee the country, according to a study by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Marwa said the FDF is looking for funding to provide reporters the aid they need to seek refuge in other countries. For those who cannot leave or choose not to, Marwa said another goal of the organization is to archive or publish their work.

“We know bringing freedom of speech in Afghanistan is kind of impossible at the moment, but what we are going to try to do is save the journalists left behind because, unfortunately, we see them being killed, being tortured just for speaking their mind,” Marwa said. “We know that [refuge] is not possible for all of them. There are thousands, if not millions, of them out there.”

“If we can't bring them out, then we will try to provide resources and help on the inside so they can continue their work,” Marwa said. “With the situation back home, you don't know what's going to happen [in the] next second. You don't know if you're going to survive, let alone your work. So, we try to help them out in any way we can.”

The persecution and erasure of journalists in Afghanistan has also been bolstered by the Taliban’s gender-based violence and targeting. One of the first regressions the Taliban implemented was to ban women and girls from attending secondary school and universities.

Additionally, Taliban authorities have further cracked down on every aspect of the reporting process for women, as they are barred from interviewing male government officials and from participating in press conferences without a male chaperone. They are also restricted from traveling for reporting purposes.

“Every threat to a journalist is a direct attack on freedom of information, opinion, and expression — fundamental rights that belong to all of us,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in a statement on World Press Freedom Day. “The safety of journalists is not just a question of personal security; it is a question of the safety and health of entire societies.”

The FDF held its first conference in Toronto, Canada, in October to give Afghan journalists, Canadian and U.S. government officials, and other supporters a platform to garner support for the organization and, more broadly, for restoring press freedoms in Afghanistan. Panelists included Rina Amiri, U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan women, girls and human rights, and Lotfullah Najafizada, a founder and reporter for Amu Television, an independent media outlet started in 2022 to safely publish work by reporters on the ground in Afghanistan, including women journalists.

“We just wanted to provide a platform where all of these different people could come together to share what they know, what they've learned out of their research, and what they think is the best route to continue work in Afghanistan,” Marwa said. “We saw how all of [the panelists] wanted the same goal but don’t have communication between them. It was amazing to see that the organizations and government officials that did care were there. It felt like I was back in my dad’s office.”

Marwa said it was pivotal to see people had not given up on the idea of a free press in Afghanistan and wanted to be involved in the FDF.

“When someone said this was the first time a conference like this has happened, I was shocked, to be honest,” Marwa said. “I feel like the fact that there were 20 years of war in our country has somehow made people think that this is normal for us, that it’s supposed to be our lives forever, right? There’s much more people are thinking about right now, but Afghanistan should be one of them. They are human beings, too. They are individuals with dreams that should not be forgotten.”

As an economic crisis and continuing suppression by the Taliban regime loom over the country, Marwa stressed the importance of continuing the conversation to keep people’s attention.

“[The FDF] has decided to have a series of conferences from now on where people can time and time again come together and share what they've learned since the previous conference,” Marwa said. “The more updated people are, the better. The more we work together, the better the results are going to be.”