(17 Feb 2022) Fear accompanies reporter Banafsha Binesh from the moment she leaves her Kabul home each morning to her arrival at the newsroom at Afghanistan's largest television station.
It starts with the Taliban fighters, who roam the streets of the capital with weapons slung over their shoulders.
Binesh, 27, says she is frightened by their reputation of harshness toward women, rather than any unsavoury encounter.
Dread and uncertainty mount with every new report of a fellow journalist having been detained, interrogated, or beaten by Taliban fighters.
"Working is full of stress," said Binesh, who works for TOLO-TV.
Binesh wants to leave Afghanistan, saying she longs for the freedoms they enjoyed before the Taliban swept to power.
"We were not expecting that after 20 years of democracy to face these many restrictions," said Binesh.
Since taking power six months ago, the country's new rulers have also issued directives requiring journalists to keep Islamic principles in mind and work for the good of the nation — rules that would seem aimed at quashing independent reporting.
Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Culture and Information Ministry, said criticism is tolerated, but must be constructive.
He blamed attacks on journalists — often while they cover women's protests, explosions, and other news — on over-zealous Taliban.
Other arrests of journalists were not linked to their work, he claimed.
Most recently, two journalists working for the U.N. refugee agency were held for six days and released last week after the U.N. raised alarms.
The Taliban said they released the journalists after confirming their identities.
In one trend-bucking development, TOLO now has more female than male journalists, both in the newsroom and out on the streets.
TOLO news director Khpolwak Sapai said he made a point of hiring women after nearly 90% of the company's employees fled or were evacuated in the first days of the Taliban takeover.
He said female staffers have not been threatened by the Taliban authorities but have at times been denied access because of their gender.
In one case, a TOLO reporter was barred from a briefing by the acting minister of mines and petroleum when he found out the station had sent a woman to the event.
Sapai said TOLO promptly does stories on such incidents.
Sapai said views among the Taliban range from those who cling to the strict views of the past to those who want a more open society that embraces education and work for all, including girls and women.
He believes domestic and external pressures on the Taliban should not be underestimated.
"Domestically and externally, there are pressures on them (the Taliban) and people are widely united that women should have the right to work and study, so we hope that things might change soon," said Sapai.
Faisal Mudaris, a broadcast journalist, blogger, and YouTube personality, spent eight days in Taliban custody, where he said he was beaten and threatened.
Mudaris is from the restive Panjshir Valley, the only holdout against Taliban rule during their first weeks in power.
Mudaris fears his ethnicity as a Panjshiri, not his journalism, landed him in a Taliban lockup.
He believes he remains at risk, fearing that no one can hold the Taliban accountable.
Journalists from other ethnic minorities, including the Hazaras who have long faced discrimination from successive governments, also worry.
In the first months after the Taliban takeover, several journalists of a small outlet called Etilaat Roz were arrested and beaten. Both were Hazaras.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
