AMSO: More Than 80% of Female Journalists Have Left Media Work During Five Years of Taliban Rule
- Maryam Naiby
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
The Afghanistan Media Support Organization (AMSO) says five years of Taliban rule have severely restricted Afghanistan’s media environment, and more than 80 per cent of female journalists have left formal media work.
The organisation says security pressure, censorship, restrictions on filming and direct Taliban interference in editorial work have placed media independence and the public’s right to access information at serious risk.
According to an AMSO report published on Wednesday (12 August), Afghanistan ranked 122nd in the World Press Freedom Index before the Taliban returned to power, but has now fallen to 178th place. The organisation described Afghanistan’s 56-place decline as a sign of a serious deterioration in media freedom and expanding restrictions on journalists.
The report says that following the Taliban’s return, between 40 and 50 per cent of Afghanistan’s print, radio and television media outlets have been completely or temporarily shut down. As a result, hundreds of journalists and media workers have lost their jobs, while many have been forced to leave Afghanistan.
Citing figures from Reporters Without Borders, AMSO wrote that of the 1,467 journalists who received support from the organisation’s assistance programmes between 2021 and 2025 after leaving their countries, 677 were Afghan journalists. This represented 46 per cent of all journalists supported through the programme. Reporters Without Borders has described Afghanistan as the “global centre of forced exile for journalists”.
The situation of female journalists is one of the most serious parts of the report. AMSO says Taliban directives and restrictions have sharply reduced women’s presence in the media, with more than 80 per cent of female journalists leaving formal media work. The few women who still work in some media outlets also face strict rules regarding clothing and working conditions.
According to the organisation, the widespread exclusion of women from the media is not limited to the loss of employment opportunities. It has also affected the nature and quality of coverage of issues concerning women, resulting in many of the experiences and problems of Afghan women receiving less media attention.
The report also details intelligence-related pressure by the Taliban on journalists. According to AMSO’s findings, journalists and media officials in Kabul, Nangarhar and several other provinces have been asked to publicly declare their support for the Taliban system. In some cases, individuals have also been asked to identify and report journalists who work with independent media outlets or media organisations based outside Afghanistan.
AMSO says Taliban restrictions no longer target only political and security news. In some provinces, journalists have been barred from reporting public complaints, casualties from incidents, social problems and even from filming at public events. In some cases, journalists have been detained for taking photographs or threatened with arrest.
The organisation also reported that media outlets in Kandahar, Khost, Logar and Paktia have been asked to prioritise coverage of the anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power.
AMSO warned that such pressure undermines editorial independence and turns media outlets into tools for disseminating the Taliban’s official narrative.
According to the report, journalists’ cameras were confiscated at a vice and virtue meeting in Nangarhar, and they were allowed to record audio only. In Helmand, journalists were detained for around half an hour for taking photographs at an event related to breastfeeding. In Nuristan, journalists in flood-affected areas were placed under strict supervision and instructed to report only on Taliban activities.
AMSO warned that pressure on the media in Afghanistan has become widespread and structural and is no longer limited to direct censorship of news. The organisation says the continuation of this situation poses a serious threat to the survival of independent media, women’s presence in the media, journalists’ safety and the public’s right to access free information.
