Farida Nekzad is a passionate and determined Afghan journalist who lives and works in Kabul, Afghanistan. Nekzad, who is incidentally also a woman, has been working as a journalist for more than 10 years, most recently with Pajhwok Afghan News. She resigned from Pajhwok earlier this year to start her own media center for women in Afghanistan.
Nekzad, like many journalists in Afghanistan, has faced dire threats, harassment and roadblocks in the course of reporting the news. She takes a special interest in issues that are considered taboo, but which have a heavy impact on Afghan society. Nekzad believes that by talking about such issues in the press, a conversation about Afghan’s social issues can begin–and the evils she reports, at the very least, will not go unspoken.
After months of trying to track her down, I spoke with Nekzad in Kabul in the wee hours of a March morning by phone from New York. Always a gracious lady, Nekzad shared with me her vision for her work and the future of journalists in Afghanistan.
You can read a feature-length story about Nekzad and other female journalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan in this month’s issue of Quill magazine here.
Interview with Farida Nekzad, Pajhwok Afghan News on March 17, 2009
How is the Situation for Women Journalists in Afghanistan?
“Now for women because of the Taliban, particularly women journalists, they are facing difficulty. The international community, international organizations are working for women journalists. At the beginning they gave attention and a lot and cooperation and tried to protect them. But unfortunately now the organizations who protect women are not doing their jobs. That is why women journalists have problems and are facing pressure.”
What Kinds of Problems are Women Journalists in Afghanistan Facing?
“They have one problem in Afghanistan. Women are limited to work as journalists, violence against women is increasing in different provinces, even in Kabul. Different journalists are taking pressure, like kidnapping, warnings, and it’s difficult for them to work.
“We [also] have a religious system, the average knowledge of education in Afghanistan is very low. The idea of the man is that it’s difficult to accept a woman as journalist. We have warlords, we have definite positions, they are in power and they don’t want to work for society. Even they don’t accept the presence of women in society.”
What is a Specific Danger Journalists in Afghanistan Face?
“Journalists want people to know about the reality. The warlords and people who are in power will kidnap. People cannot express their problems because they [the warlords] have guns, they have power, they don’t accept the law—they have their own laws.”
What about Women Journalists?
“Mostly for now when we lose journalists it’s related to warlords. Even women who have been educated in university, this is a problem. They don’t want women to work as journalists. They don’t women to work outside the home. For the Taliban, according to the Sharia of Islam (interpretive law of Islam), they think women don’t have the right to work with men.”
What Has it Been Like for You?
“About 10 years I have been working as a journalist. It was my dream, I thought maybe I could do that. At that time I saw mostly women in Afghanistan were in the corner of issues. So I thought we should talk about women, about the problems of women, about Afghan women, about the violence, I wanted to talk about human rights and women’s rights. It was my dream to work as a journalisit.”
Has it Been an Uphill Battle?
“As women manager (editor at Pajhwok Afghan News), my journalists who work with me, they lack information and we don’t have any way to get information. Unfortunately if we want to get information, it takes a while and it remains incomplete.”
What has the Focus of Your Work Been?
“I trained about 200 journalists, all women inside Afghanistan in Kabul. We train for different publications and news agencies. Photographers, writers.”
Why Did You Resign as an Editor with Pajhwok Afghan News?
“I am one of the founders of Pajhwok, [but] I’m trying to start my own work for the protection of journalists and start my own organization. I want to start with media protection for all women journalists, sharing ideas, giving more chance for their progress and promoition. One big problem we have is more protesction, more stability. Because I have experience as a news editor, as a manager, I managed all of the news for five years, and I have the experience of management, and that is why I am interested to teach [other] women.”
What will the Focus of Your Media Center Be?
“I don’t want to work just for short term. There are people who work for a while, they disapper. I want to work for long term. And it should be a big chance for the promotion and progress of women. Afghan women are also able to work hard and seriously.”
What are Some Threats and Problems You’ve Faced?
“When I went to Pajhwok (Afghan News) and became a manager and stopped writing, it was more difficult because we had some problems with the men under me. In Afghanistan men will never accept a woman as a leader. Women involved with me in that organization and I talked about the freedom of press, freedom of organization–that kind of issue is important for me. [For safety reasons] we changed mobile numbers, email. Even right now, the police tell me I should stop talking. So I have problems. But I don’t think about myself, I just think I should work.”
How Can the Outside World Understand What’s Happening in Afghanistan?
“One thing I mention in panel discussions and interviews, is you should come to Afghanistan. Still we are not free, we are under pressure, we cannot go ahead. It’s a big problem to have just one woman journalist.”
