A significant proportion of the journalists from international media who have been prohibited from working in Afghanistan are female reporters, says Heather Barr, the associate director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch.
In a tweet posted on Sunday, April 23, 2023, on her official Twitter page, Heather Barr stated that these female journalists were barred from working in Afghanistan due to their coverage of women’s rights in the country.
Barr did not offer specific figures in her tweet regarding the precise number of female international media journalists who have been prohibited from working in Afghanistan. However, it is worth noting that the Taliban have recently banned The Washington Post’s Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief, Susannah George, from entering the country.
Last week, on Thursday, The Washington Post issued a statement disclosing that the Taliban had informed them that their Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief, Susanna George, was no longer permitted to report from inside Afghanistan.
According to the statement by The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, The Post has been strongly contesting the decision for several months. However, the Taliban has reportedly declared that “the action is final.”
“We believe that Susannah has been unjustly banned, but we have made the decision with her that she move on to another reporting assignment later this year,” the statement reads.
In the statement, Buzbee also mentioned that The Post is in the process of searching for a new chief for its Afghanistan/Pakistan bureau, with the hope that the Taliban will fulfill their promise of allowing the newspaper’s journalists to operate within the country.
The Post has stated that since Susannah George’s last reporting trip to Afghanistan in November 2021, the Taliban have granted permission for several other reporters from the newspaper to report from inside the country.
Despite this, the newspaper considers Susannah’s work ban a “serious setback” for their reporting efforts in Afghanistan, but they remain determined to continue working in and reporting from inside the country.
Since the Taliban reseized power in Afghanistan, there have been numerous accusations of their mistreatment of female journalists from international media, with some being barred from entering the country altogether.
In addition to Susannah George, the Taliban have also banned Stefanie Glinski, a freelance journalist and photographer, from entering Afghanistan since September 2022.
Glinski had worked in Afghanistan for four years and had primarily reported from inside the country for Foreign Policy and The Guardian.
Furthermore, Australian freelance journalist, Lynne O’Donnell, was barred from working in Afghanistan after being detained and abused by the Taliban in July 2022.
