The Afghanistan National Journalists Union (ANJU) reported that the presence of women in the nation's media has dropped by 64% compared in the past two years.
According to Ahmad Shah Fana, chief executive of the union, there are no female journalists working in 22 of the provinces of the nation right now, and their activity is very low in 12 other provinces.
"According to the statistics that we received, there are no female journalists working at all in 22 provinces, and of the seventeen media outlets that were previously exclusively for women, only seven remain operational today, and the recent ones have been shut down,” Fana noted.
Only seven of the seventeen media outlets related to women are currently active, Fana said.
In the meantime, some female journalists in the nation urged the current government to provide women more employment opportunities.
Obida Nikofar a journalist working in Badghis province, expressed concerns over the low presence of female journalists in the country's media.
"Freedom of speech should be respected in Afghanistan and women should be supported more, and a favorable working environment should be provided for them,” Nikofar noted.
“If the situation continues like this, we won’t have female journalists in Afghanistan to do journalistic activities,” Marjan Wafa, a journalist in Herat province told TOLOnews.
“We are facing numerous economic challenges. Every day we come here and work freely, we are not given salaries,” said Ainoor Zaki, a female journalist from Badakhshan.
Local officials in some provinces of the country acknowledged the low presence of women in media.
"During the previous government, there weren't many female reporters working for the Uruzgan media. We are currently facing a lack of female reporters,” said Agha Wali Qureshi, the director of information and culture of Uruzgan.
"Currently, we do not have female employees in the media. If the Islamic Emirate allowed it if hijab was observed, and a suitable environment was created for them, there are professional reporters here,” said Janat Gul Feda, head of the information department of the ministry of information and culture of Kunar.
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