Women are 50% of the story
THE WORLD CANNOT SEE THE TRUE AFGHAN STORY WITHOUT AFGHAN WOMEN WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, CAMERA OPERATORS AND TV PRODUCERS AT FOREIGN NEWS OUTLETS
Sahar Speaks
When I was living in Afghanistan almost a decade ago, there were no Afghan women working for the English-language foreign news companies. This was a systemic failure by the international press during one of the country’s most important periods in history.
I set out to change this with Sahar Speaks - offering training, mentoring and publishing opportunities for Afghan female reporters. Founded in 2015, Sahar Speaks is unique: it is the first programme of its kind to produce high-quality journalism by Afghan women for global news outlets. Our work has been published by The Huffington Post and The Guardian. My work for Sahar Speaks earned me the British Press Award for Innovation in 2016.
To date, we have trained 23 Afghan female correspondents from across the country on how to work with international media. They are writers, photographers, television presenters and documentary makers.
Some of our participants:
Since training and mentoring, our alumnae have gone on to work for The New York Times, the BBC, Agence France-Press, and Al Jazeera, amongst others.
