Established in 2017, Nimrokh Weekly emerged from Fatima Roshanian’s extensive travels across Afghanistan and her work with various women’s groups. Observing firsthand the profound restrictions, deprivations, and violence against women deeply ingrained in Afghan society’s misogynistic traditions, Roshanian felt the need to initiate this crucial platform. Literally, Nimrokh means the profile of a woman’s face, and indicates the desire to talk about the visible and hidden aspects of women’s lives.
“Nimrokh” means profile-a metaphor for the half-hidden face of women, exposed. It reflects a desire to explore both the visible and concealed aspects of women’s lives
Evolving into an online edition in 2019, Nimrokh has always been a dedicated voice in women’s media, focusing on women’s inclusion and civil/political rights, the struggles of the women’s movements in Afghanistan, gender apartheid, and since 2021, the harrowing realities of women’s lives under the Taliban rule. Nimrokh also acknowledges and honors women’s accomplishments in various fields, highlighting their significant contributions in politics, culture, education, economy, sports, and art.
Over the years, Nimrokh has stood out as one of the few media outlets in Afghanistan to provide a platform for women’s narratives on societal challenges. It has courageously addressed issues such as women’s bodily autonomy, sexual harassment, discrimination against sexual minorities, women’s virginity, menstrual health, and forced marriages, and LGBTQ+ rights. introducing these critical topics into Afghanistan’s legal and social discourse.
About CEO
Fatima Roshanian is the CEO of Nimrokh Media and has studied political science and journalism at Gawharshad University, Kabul. She has worked for five years in the field of health, education, and women’s research in 27 provinces of Afghanistan from 2010 to 2014. In 2015, Fatima had an idea for a mechanism that would bring people together to fight for their fundamental rights. At the start of her university classes, she founded “Negarish Now” with several young people. She also volunteered in the cultural, social, educational, and human rights programs for three years, from 2015 to 2017, while serving as the head of the women’s committee and the deputy general of this institution.
After becoming aware of the deplorable conditions, imposed violence, and censorship against women, in 2017, Fatima established a weekly magazine under the name of Nimrokh in Kabul in August of the same year. For the five years that it has been active and published, this weekly has addressed problems pertaining to women, human rights, and the advancement of LGBTQ rights in Afghanistan. Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, Fatima relocated to Albania on November 13, 2021, and then, on April 20, 2022, she became a refugee in Canada. She has registered Nimrokh as an independent, non-profit corporation in Canada, and its online activities reflect on the status of women in Afghanistan.
The policy and publication policy of Nimrokh is based on the protection of women’s rights, gender equality, democratic values, and critique of patriarchal socio-political culture and structures. In the last two years before the fall of Afghanistan, a major part of this media’s work was attending to women’s civil and political rights in the peace process as well. Striving to create a broad intellectual front among women in issues of peace and post-peace development; Nimrokh Media has defined the Taliban as an anti-woman terrorist group. After August 2021, Nimrokh focuses on the themes of women’s protest and resistance against the Taliban and the publication of reports on Taliban violence against women, women’s narratives of life under Taliban domination and women and migration.