''Rukhshana Media'' () is an

Afghan women Women's rights in Afghanistan have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period. After King Amanullah Khan's attempts to modernize the country in the 1920s, women officially gained equality under the 1964 Constitution. However, th ...

's media organisation created in November 2020 in memory of Rukhshana, a young woman stoned to death in 2015 in

Ghor Province Ghōr (Dari: ), also spelled Ghowr or Ghur, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in the western Hindu Kush in central Afghanistan, towards the northwest. The province contains eleven districts, encompassing hundreds ...

for having fled with a lover after a forced marriage.

Creation

''Rukhshana Media'' was created in November 2020 by

Zahra Joya Zahra Joya (Persian: زهرا جویا) is an award-winning Hazara journalist from Afghanistan. She is the founder of Rukhshana Media, an outlet in Persian and English which she runs from exile. Early life Zahra Joya was born in a small rural v ...

to focus on stories by and about Afghan women. The name "Rukhshana" refers to a teenager from

called Rukhshana who was accused of adultery and stoned to death in 2015. A video of the lapidation circulated widely, gaining widespread international attention. Rukhshana's killing was one of several cases of honour killings of women fleeing forced marriages or of women rape victims in Ghor Province in the mid 2010s.

Themes

Themes published by ''Rukhshana Media'' include "women's reproductive health, domestic and sexual violence, and gender discrimination". During the

2021 Taliban offensive A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...

, ''Rukhshana Media'' reported on expectations that the Taliban would violate women's rights and that divorced women remaining single expected to be at risk from the Taliban. In July 2021, ''Rukhshana Media'' together with '' Time'' and ''The Fuller Project'' reported on school being forbidden to "thousands" of girls in Taliban-occupied areas of Afghanistan, with teachers at girls' schools receiving death threats and being refused authorisation to teach. According to the report, only girls up to the age of 12 were allowed to attend school, they were required to wear niqābs or burqas, and the number of hours teaching the Quran was increased.

Development

On 15 August 2021, the date of the Fall of Kabul, ''Rukhshana Media'' announced its plans to launch a version of its news website in English, in addition to its existing Dari reports.

Security risks

During the

, ''Rukhshana Media'' journalists were at risk, due to the high risk of assassination of female journalists. '' Columbia Journalism Review'' described risks to Afghan journalists in general and women journalists in particular as remaining high following the 15 August 2021 fall of Kabul to Taliban forces.

References

External links