Afghan refugee and journalist Zahra Nader

World Refugee Day: The Journey of an Afghan Journalist Forced to Flee Twice

Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, women have faced devastating setbacks. New data from UN Women shows that with so many of their rights denied, Afghan women achieve only 17.3% of their full potential in exercising their rights and freedoms.

Zahra Nader, an Afghan journalist and activist, has lived this harsh reality: she has been forced to flee her home country not once, but twice, to escape the Taliban's oppressive rule.

Once a Refugee

Zahra first became a refugee at the age of six. When the Taliban first took power, her family fled their village in Bamayan, where they lived without electricity or running water. She recalls how that journey marked her very first experience riding in a car— to escape to Iran.

But Iran also proved to be harsh: once there, she was denied her right to an education. Her mother went begging school principals to let her be in class, but not one accepted her, as an Afghan girl. She remembers that people in the street would humiliate her by calling out: “Nasty Afghani, go back to your country.”

Twice a Refugee : the Second Exile

After living as a refugee in Iran, Zahra managed to return home to Afghanistan, where she continued her studies and worked as a journalist in Kabul. She later moved to Canada and pursued her PhD. However, when the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Zahra was once again faced with the painful reality that she could not go back to her home country, as her work as journalist put her life at risk. She was forced to become a refugee for the second time.

What weighs on her most is the fate of millions of Afghan women and girls who are now denied access to education, as she was. « It is really inhuman, for half of the population of a country to be stripped of their basic human rights because they were born female, they were born women,” Zahra says.

Life Under Gender Apartheid

Zahra describes the Taliban regime as a system of « gender apartheid ». Women are systematically denied access to education, healthcare, freedom of movement, and even basic dignity—conditions that cause immense suffering. “This is the most severe women's rights crisis of our time, and all of us have a responsibility to report it, to raise awareness, but also to ensure that we are hearing from the people who are leaving the Taliban's oppression and living in the Taliban gender apartheid in Afghanistan.”

There are tragic consequences to this system, she says: women facing extreme poverty, preventable deaths during childbirth, and severe mental trauma. One of the most heart-wrenching stories she recalls is that of a 16-year-old girl who took her own life after being imprisoned and, most likely, assaulted.

Silenced Voices and Global Indifference

Despite the severity of the crisis, Zahra says media coverage and global action to counter this repression have been stymied. “In Afghanistan, the media are not allowed to independently publish information. The Taliban have inserted their own monitors there strictly and ensuring that no media would be allowed to publish any content that the Taliban calls contrary to Islam.”

She warns against falling for the Taliban's narrative, which is to claim that they respect women’s rights in accordance to Islamic principles, “yet no other Muslim-majority country practices such oppression,” she says.

Amid the darkness, resistance

« If there is oppression there is resistance - and I know, I see, and I work with a group of courageous women who stand up to the Taliban every day, that report every day, that try to be the voice of women in Afghanistan,” Zahra says in a message. She is thinking of the brave Afghan women who continue to report, learn in secret, and fight back against the erasure of their identities. “The Taliban can lock doors but not minds,” she says.

« The courage of Afghan women and pursuit of knowledge are acts of defiance. This regime will not last, and women must keep preparing for the day when justice and freedom return.”

Afghan refugee and journalist Zahra Nader

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