Afghanistan's women's newspaper

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aina-E-Zan, the first women's newspaper in Afghanistan, was launched in 2002. Edited by Shukria Barazkai, the newspaper covered women's rights issues in depth, as well as criticizing the warlords who controlled much of the country at the time. Even though this was a relatively open period in Afghan history, the women journalists still faced death threats and at one point Aina-E-Zan was even banned by the Afghan parliament after it printed an article about a woman being stoned. Shukria Barazkai talks to Laura Jones.

PHOTO: Shukria Barazkai in 2005 (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC
0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast with me Laura Jones.
0:47.0	Today I'm taking you back 20 years to Afghanistan in 2002 when the country's first newspaper for women was published.
0:55.6	It was called Ainee-ZAN, the Women's Mirror, and I've been speaking to its editor,
1:01.2	Shukria Barakzai.
1:06.0	It's late 2001,
1:08.0	and after years of brutal repression,
1:10.0	the Taliban have been forced from power in Afghanistan.
1:13.6	It's been a particularly dark time for women who've been totally excluded from public life.
1:19.2	Women are being allowed to do things banned by the Taliban regime over the last five years.
1:24.1	And life is slowly getting back to normal.
1:26.3	The streets are full of women enjoying the freedom to walk on their own unaccompanied
1:30.1	by a man.
1:31.7	Professional women are returning to their jobs without the prospect of being
1:34.5	hassled or stopped. Shukria Barak's eye was then 30. She says it felt like the dawning of a new
1:40.6	era as Afghanistan emerged not just from the Taliban domination but a devastating
	...

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