Shabnam Dawran worked for six years as a journalist for the state-owned company RTA
Kabul:
An Afghan journalist has said she was banned from working for her TV station after the Taliban took control of the country, and pleaded for help in a video posted online.
Well-known news anchor Shabnam Dawran wore a hijab and showed her office card: “our lives are threatened” in the clip on social media.
Under the Taliban regime, from 1996 to 2001, women were barred from public life, girls were not allowed to attend school, entertainment was banned and brutal punishments were imposed.
Female journalists have also been targeted by the militants in a spate of assassinations in recent months prior to their takeover of the country.
However, since taking power in a lightning strike, the Taliban have claimed that women will have rights, including education and employment, and that the media will be independent and free.
A Taliban official even sat down for a one-on-one TV interview with a female journalist to emphasize his point.
But Dawran, who spent six years as a journalist in Afghanistan for the state broadcaster RTA, said this week she was barred from her office while male colleagues were allowed in.
“I didn’t give up after the system change and went to my office, but unfortunately I was not allowed to despite showing my office card,” she said in the video.
“The male employees, who had office cards, were allowed to enter the office, but I was told I couldn’t continue my shift because the system has changed.”
Dawran begs the viewers, saying, “Those who listen to me, if the world hears me, please help us, because our lives are under threat.”
Among those who shared the footage was Miraqa Popal, an editor at Tolo News, a 24-hour broadcaster in Afghanistan.
“The Taliban did not allow my ex-colleague here at @TOLOnews and the famous anchor of the state-owned company @rtapashto Shabnam Dawran to start her work today,” Popal wrote in a tweet that has been shared thousands of times.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Popal posted a photo of a female news presenter on Tolo, with the caption: “We resumed our broadcast today with female anchors.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
