Why TIME Partnered With Rukhshana Media to Tell the Stories of Afghan Women Around the World

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About the system of “the Longest War”—a name we ended up previously employing back again in 2009—TIME released additional than a dozen covers about Afghanistan and the Taliban. Potentially the finest acknowledged was in 2010 and highlighted a shocking and disturbing portrait of Bibi Aisha, a then 18-12 months-outdated whose husband—a Taliban fighter—had cut off her nose and ears immediately after she tried to escape their compelled marriage. The tale that ran with that deal with, created by senior correspondent Aryn Baker, explored what could possibly come about to Afghan women if the U.S. have been to pull out of Afghanistan.

Today of program that is no for a longer time a hypothetical. To mark one calendar year considering the fact that Kabul fell to the Taliban—a calendar year in which ladies have misplaced lots of of the freedoms they had for the former two decades—executive editor Naina Bajekal collaborated with journalists Amie Ferris-Rotman and Zahra Joya on a distinctive challenge. The powerful visuals in the package were overseen by TIME’s Sangsuk Sylvia Kang, Paul Moakley, and Katherine Pomerantz. Operating with ladies writers and photographers close to the globe, and supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Heart, the workforce set out to illuminate the ordeals of females who had to leave Afghanistan, pursuing new desires even as they keep on being deeply involved about liked types back home.

The result is our global deal with for this issue. It tells the tales of eight Afghan girls, every single of whom considering the fact that last August has fled the Taliban to start off a new life in destinations ranging from Fort Myers, Fla., to Great, France, to São Paulo. For Ferris–Rotman and Joya, this task was specifically individual. Ferris-Rotman was previously based mostly in Afghanistan, the place she proven an group to mentor and train Afghan gals journalists. Joya, one of TIME’s 2022 Females of the Yr, grew to become a single of the many new Afghan refugees last August. From her property in London, she operates Rukhshana Media, which is committed to telling the tales of Afghan girls. Rukhshana Media will be publishing this challenge on its individual internet site, in English and Dari, the place we hope several of its readers will see on their own reflected in the tales.

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Examine Much more: What Afghanistan’s Ladies Stand to Lose

The journeys of these eight girls are diverse. Some are stories of hope. Some of worry. All are tales of resilience. “What we will need is not pity and empathy,” states Masouma Tajik, a 23-calendar year-aged Rutgers College scholar who remaining Kabul for Kyiv, only to have to rebuild her daily life once far more. “What we will need is prospects so we can make our have way.”

Previous Afghan air pressure pilot Raihana Rahimi, who appears with Hasina Najibi on the include and was interviewed by Afghan journalist Farahnaz Forotan, expresses a related sentiment. “I am established to locate a way again into my occupation,” she suggests. “This is the dream that retains me alive.”