After fall of the Taliban in 2001, the International Community allocated plenty of resources to build so called sustainable Afghanistan. However, much of the resources were invested in media sector as well, as a result, Journalists participation and activities significantly increased too. During 2001- 2009, Afghan Journalists were faced Security threats particularly, female journalists in the country, but still continued their tasks. Security remains as major threats for journalists in all over Afghanistan. But the question is, what are the other main factors that reduced female participation in media especially since 2009 onward?

As we witness, threats and violence against women journalists are escalating day by day around the globe, especially in conflict and in post conflict societies.  In a volatile and in conflict driven society like Afghanistan, Journalism is not an easy task. Reporters and journalists, in such societies, face antagonism, injustice, aggression and violence from different sects of the society. In a society where journalism is considered as a risky career, women journalists in particular faces discrimination, different kinds of harassment and violation of their rights. Due to their personal safety, they could do very little to avoid such injustices.

Although, sexual abuse and harassment, both in office and streets, threats and attacks against female journalists are very frequent, they are rarely spoken by the Afghan government, non-governmental organization and the news media. Recently, phone tapping and cyber threats are becoming very common, but the government is, indeed, doing very little to avoid such kind of attacks.  While trying to reach women in media in an office in Kabul, I tried to contact 125 female journalists. Unfortunately I was able to talk only with four of them who have stated their correct mobile numbers and email addresses. The rest have not stated their numbers and email addresses correctly. At first I thought there might be a technical mistake in registering their personal details. But from my contact with the two female journalists I found out that it is the otherwise.  The two female journalists I contacted were constantly reminding me not to share their mobile numbers and email addresses with male colleagues. Their insisting on this point partly explained why female journalists do not feel comfortable in sharing their email and phone numbers.

It is true that being a women journalist is dangerous, but it is even more risky in Afghanistan. While facing sexual abuse and physical and emotional attacks within their families and outside, women journalist most often keeps quite due to cultural issues and the risk of being labeled as a dishonor to their family and in their professional environment. In an environment to choose between your honor and professional career, some and perhaps many of the women journalists choose the former. In a quest to save their honor they are forced to leave their career. From a monitoring visit to one of the media training classes, one intern journalist told a story of her two recent job interviews with two TV channels. The first channel admired her beauty rather than her talent for the job. While the second channel asked her for her flexibility about her physical appearance in TV program, which meant clothing against her will and comfort. At the end of the conversation she looked frustrated and insisted not to be quoted with her name as this might bring her shame and dishonor. They are afraid to talk of such issues in their families as well, as they will be banned from going out and working with media outlets. Most of the families hearing such concerns are inclined not to trade their family honor for the career of their daughter or sister.

Safety of working environment from any kind of abuse and violence for women journalist has been one of the serious threats disheartening women journalists to work in media outlets. Meanwhile, most of the harassments against female journalists continued to be undiscovered, unreported and unpunished. That is why the trend of women journalists working in media outlet has been decreasing since 2009. The government has tried to remedy the situation and work for better work environment of all women, including journalists. The EVAW (Elimination of Violence Against Women) law (which is still to be passed) and the NAPWA (National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan) are the two main policy level documents that tries to address violence against women systematically, at least in theory. However, little has been done to implement many parts of NAPWA. Ministry of Women having the leading role in coordinating NAPWA has itself been suffering from shortage of capacity. In light of NAPWA and EVAW, the "Anti Sexual Harassment" policy was drafted, which needs to be adopted in all organizations. This policy has propped hope for women working in such organizations.

It is needless to say that sexual abuse and sexual harassment continues to be the number one disheartening factor against women working in various organizations, including media. Harassment of women is not limited to their working environment only. Women are not safe out on the streets as well. The "Anti Sexual Harassment" policy just remained a policy in paper without any teeth to bite. There is no effective mechanism how to address issues of sexual harassment within organizations. It is obvious from the fact that so far no case of sexual harassment has been brought to surface in government or non-government organization. Sexist jokes are very common in every organization and nothing has been done about it. The biggest irony of this policy is that it says nothing about a situation, when you are harassed by general director of the organization. Almost in any organization the anti harassment committee is lead by the general director of the organization. What if the director himself is the harasser?

Apart from government, many civil society and international organizations also tried to lobby for women rights and violence against women, including sexual abuse and harassment. Their support to violence against women is quite reactionary and ad hoc and they don't address the root causes of different kinds of violence and abuse. Over the past few years many women journalists were abused, threatened and even killed, but their cases deliberately remained silent. The issue of culturally sensitive approaches is very crucial to be mentioned here. Imported models of fighting violence against women have proven less effective in Afghanistan. A more localize solution needs to be developed considering the realities on the ground. One of the major approaches used by civil society and international organization is training and raising awareness of women about their rights and advocacy skills. The focus, over the last few years by the international community, is more on quantity of women being trained rather than on quality of training being provided. This model has proved to be less effective, as violence against women in general and violence against women journalists in particular has been increasing day by day. 

There is a strong need to assess the effectiveness of the approaches of different organization working in the area of support to women journalists. Women journalist needs to be supported as they are fundamental in raising issues of violence against women in Afghanistan. In an environment where women journalist themselves are exposed to abuse and violence, how could we expect these journalist to conduct investigative journalism in the sphere of violence and abuse against women. However their hope from the new government to take gender issues, including violence against women and specifically against women journalists very seriously. As evident from the promises of the President and the new CEO, women issues will remain part of their main agenda. There is a need to take measures in order to remedy the declining role of women journalist in media.

 Future Needs:

• The work which is done by women contribution in media sectors should be acknowledged and valued so that women journalists get encouraged in their work and work field.
• The International Community with the coordination of new government and media support organizations can focus on quality of trainings, specially while raising awareness on women rights and advocacy skills rather than quantity trainings.
• The International Community, media support organization and even the government can also provide safety trainings for women in media on how to handle the physical attacks and threats in their work arena.
• EVAW can be passed by the new government and also, to be implemented truly in all over the country. So to reduce violence against women and particularly women journalist.
• NAPWA can priorities its responsibilities towards women in media sectors in Afghanistan so, to provide job safety and security to female in media.
•  “Sexual Harassment Policy” can be implemented to fight against harassment both in the street and offices in order to reduce the number of harassment against women which can be called as a silence crime.