Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesperson, said recently there were more than 20,000 religious schools operating across the country, providing religious instruction to more than two million people. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/how-a-pro...

Sabera is driven on by the memory of her father, who was killed by Taliban insurgents before the group returned to power in 2021. After his death, she said, she vowed not to remain silent in the face of the men who had taken him from her. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/silence-i...

Deeply grateful for your continued support and encouragement. Thank you to the wonderful team at the Thomson Foundation! ❤️ Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing members of your team.

@zahrajoya.bsky.social told the APPG that ‘the system of gender apartheid in #Afghanistan’ means that ‘being a woman has become a structural crime’. She called on the #UK Government to hold the #Taliban accountable: ‘in this chaotic moment, we should not turn a blind eye to these issues’.

Golshah*, a 53-year-old single mother of five from Sar-e Pol province, told Rukhshana she sold all her jewellery and mortgaged her land so she could send her adult daughter to Iran to continue her studies in law.

Annalena Baerbock, President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, warned against a policy of tolerance towards the Taliban’s violations of the rights of women and girls while speaking at the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

In the ancient citadel that towers over the historic Afghan city of Herat, a group of women sits at a table, paintbrushes in hand and heavy in concentration. rukhshana.com/en/how-afgha...

The secret Afghan women’s book club defying the Taliban to read Orwell

They read not for entertainment but, as they put it, to understand life and the world around them. They call their group “women with books and imagination”. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/with-book...

Every winter, they risk being cut off by deep snow and unable to access the city for crucial medical services, trade and other essentials. Read more:https://rukhshana.com/en/digging-for-development-how-hazara-women-are-helping-to-build-a-road-for-their-community/

Residents say that around a third of the 300 people who have worked on the project to connect the central provinces of Daikundi, Uruzgan and Ghazni to the capital, Kabul, were women.

This morning we heard powerful testimonies from human rights defenders Rahima Mahmut, @zahrajoya.bsky.social and Olga Borisova on why end-to-end encryption is essential for safe, private communication. The UK government’s push for backdoors would put lives at risk. Their stories show why.

These are among the punishments laid out in a new criminal code that has been officially adopted by the Taliban in Afghanistan. rukhshana.com/en/how-the-t...

A young Afghan woman has been arrested by the Taliban’s morality police while secretly training girls in taekwondo. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/taliban-d...

A female journalist has been detained by Taliban intelligence forces in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, sources close to her family said. rukhshana.com/en/taliban-a...

When the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan closed amid escalating tensions between the two neighbours, Somaya Nadari’s mother lost access to the treatment that had been keeping her alive. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/how-the-c...

Happy New Year! 2025 was a good year for me, even though the world remains in turmoil and the girls of Afghanistan are still denied their freedom. I hope 2026 will be a year of real change—a year when doors reopen, voices are heard, and girls return to education with dignity and hope.

Appearing on stage at the opening of his exhibition wearing a burqa, he declared: “Wherever a woman’s body is controlled, everyone’s freedom is in danger.” rukhshana.com/en/i-felt-su...

When Medina’s sister went into labour in November, her family took her to the main provincial hospital in Sar-e Pol. There, they were told she needed a caesarean section, but that no specialist was available to carry one out. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/afghanist...

Before the regime change, I worked as a teacher in a girls’ secondary school. I had a calm and modest life. My salary was not very high, but at least my children went to bed with full stomachs. rukhshana.com/en/from-teac...

Families would go there to worship, often bringing food to cook and eat together. A section of the mosque was dedicated women-only. Rukhshana Media sent a reporter to the shrine to investigate the reports. This is what he saw: rukhshana.com/en/you-shoul...

Alex Crawford explained the difficulties of reporting from the ground, with 90 percent of journalist visa applications being refused by the Taliban over the last four years. rukhshana.com/en/how-can-t...

“I was so terrified that I don’t even remember how I got out of his office. Afterwards, I swore to myself I would never go near that filthy man again, even if we die of hunger.”

This is our latest report on the issue of femicide in Afghanistan.

The lamps she produces are decorative, but they are also designed to operate reliably despite Afghanistan’s unstable power supply, working even in low-voltage conditions. Setara says they last longer than imported ones.

Since it was introduced last Wednesday, women seeking treatment have been turned away from hospitals because they weren’t wearing the burqa, while access to government services has also been affected, causing widespread distress and triggering protest. rukhshana.com/en/taliban-i...

Within hours Karishma, who was widowed three years ago, had appeared in court on unspecified charges and been sent to Kabul’s notorious Pul-e-Charkhi jail, Afghanistan’s largest high-security prison. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/go-with-l...

They say they are protecting our “honor,” our “values,” but let’s be honest — they are protecting their fear. They’re terrified of a woman who can think. Because once a woman begins to think, she begins to question. rukhshana.com/en/they-shou...

The Taliban held a press conference at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi on Sunday with female journalists present, two days after attracting a storm of criticism for reportedly turning women and foreign journalists away from a similar event. rukhshana.com/en/taliban-h...

I’m so proud and privileged to be part of this amazing college community! Thank you so much for your support ❤️

A hearing into the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan opened on Wednesday in the Spanish capital, seeking to amplify the voices of victims and hold the group accountable for human rights violations. rukhshana.com/en/peoples-t...

We're delighted to announce the appointment of Sarah Gibson as the new chair of the Rukhshana Media board of trustees. Sarah brings a wealth of experience in international journalism and is a committed advocate for equality and inclusion.1/3

Afghanistan was plunged into isolation on Monday as internet services were cut and mobile communications severely disrupted.

Then this month, the Afghan Education Ministry wrote to schools saying it was removing 51 subject headings from the curriculum, describing them as anti-Islamic.

That was until 2021, when the Taliban returned to power in her native Afghanistan. Now, the pool in Kabul where she used to swim is dry, the building abandoned and its doors bolted against the young women she once coached.

During the @Cam.ac.uk Alumni Festival, @ZahraJoya.bsky.social, Afghan Journalist & founder of @rukhshanamedia.bsky.social, & Laurie Bristow, former UK Ambassador to Afghanistan, will discuss why education is resistance in oppressive regimes. Details & booking: www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/about/events...

the group’s supreme leader had personally taken the decision to allow the removal of women’s photos from the cards on the advice of the Dar al-Ifta, or religious council. rukhshana.com/en/afghan-wo...

Most of the children she sees are moderately malnourished, the legacy of poverty and a series of droughts that have compounded the difficulties of life in a region known for its harsh climate. rukhshana.com/en/how-one-a...

Excited to be part of this amazing event! It’s an honor to speak alongside Sir Laurie and share the stage with such inspiring minds. If you are around and interested, please join us! You could book the tickets for the event! 👇🏿

More than 800 people have been killed in an earthquake in a remote mountainous part of eastern Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said on Monday. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/hundreds-...

“Now, I don’t think I can keep going because the risk is too high [but] I don’t know any other work. Our situation is very bad, but in this world there is no one to hear our voice or support us,” she added.

Mahnaz, whose real name we are withholding at her request, is one of around half a dozen women interviewed by Rukhshana Media in Herat who left Afghanistan hoping for a better life and have now returned, penniless and homeless. rukhshana.com/en/we-have-n...

For more than a decade, Radio Nasim had operated as a rare independent and non-partisan voice in central Afghanistan, home to the country’s Hazara ethnic group. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/afghan-ra...

A hospital worker in Afghanistan has told Rukhshana Media how she was abducted by the Taliban, held captive and gang-raped over several days before being abandoned in the desert and left to die, in what she believes was a punishment for doing her job. rukhshana.com/en/the-afgha...

When the Taliban issued a decree barring women from attending universities, “it felt like everything was over,” she says. “I just read books and scrolled Instagram, but I felt like my life had stopped.” Read more: rukhshana.com/en/against-a...

I’m happy to share that Rukhshana Media has now started publishing in Pashto. With this, we now publish in three languages. Farsi, Pashto and English! This challenging journey wouldn’t have been possible without your generous support. Thank you! 💜

🗣️ #WPSWednesday: In #Afghanistan, “most female-led businesses have collapsed, due to Taliban control, ineffective aid & a failure to go beyond symbolic actions that provide little genuine support for women’s enterprises.” @rukhshanamedia.bsky.social rukhshana.com/en/a-market-...

For this story, Rukhshana Media spoke to families and psychologists in Mazar-i-Sharif, which before the Taliban takeover in 2021 was one of Afghanistan’s most prosperous and liberal cities, to assess the impact of these changes on children. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/an-invisi...

Taliban arrest dozens of young Afghan women over hijab rules rukhshana.com/en/taliban-a...

She was a second-year agriculture student when the Taliban barred women from attending university, and could see her career plans disappearing before her eyes. If she couldn’t get a job, she decided, she would set up on her own. Read more: rukhshana.com/en/how-a-you...