In Afghanistan, from TV anchor to employment in an American factory: 'This job is not desirable, but I have to do it to support my family
After the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, approximately 76,000 Afghan citizens resettled in the United States over the past year, but according to BBC journalist Stephen Starr, the stories of these Afghan citizens, especially the women journalists who left their country, are still untold.
Journalist Basirah Joya used to anchor her program in Kabul, but everything changed when the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital in August 2021.
She told BBC, "I wrote an article and posted it on my Facebook page and then started receiving phone calls from the Taliban. That's why I had to go into hiding."
Now, 13 months later, 24-year-old Basirah Joya finds herself in a very different place, conducting interviews with politicians and keeping up with the latest breaking news in Kabul.
Today, they are living seven thousand miles away from their home in the American state of Ohio. Although Joya escaped from the Taliban, she still feels trapped. They work twelve hours a day and six days a week at a manufacturing plant, where the work is backbreaking. Although Joya's bricklayer does not need them to work as many hours, she says she has no other choice.
"I need to work to support my family," they said.
Their family, including their parents, lives in the province of Takhar in northeastern Afghanistan, which the Taliban took over in June 2021. "I don't like this job at all, but I have to work to send money to my family because they are worse off than me in Afghanistan. I can earn money here," they said.
It has been a year since the US government announced that, following military withdrawal from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghan citizens who worked with the US in various capacities would be resettled throughout the country in host communities. Although many of Afghanistan's top female journalists and well-known figures escaped the Taliban's grip and succeeded in fleeing the country, only a few journalists were able to continue their work during and after this period.
"I saw a different picture when I came here. Afghan journalist Zara Nader, who resides in Canada, established the online newspaper 'Zan Times' last year. She says, 'These people had to leave their country in a very painful way. They lost everything.'
'When you work so hard to become a journalist (in Afghanistan), you feel proud of what you have achieved. Then suddenly everything is taken away from you.'
Zahra Nader had done reporting for The New York Times in Afghanistan and faced similar challenges in trying to continue her career after moving to Canada in 2017.
She said that when they started 'Zan Times,' they received requests from female journalists to join their team. 'They are all professionals and have stories to tell, but unfortunately, we do not have the resources to give them a platform.'
For Kabul-based photographer Mariam Alimi, her favorite experience was capturing images of Afghan people and places. The 42-year-old photojournalist, who worked as an editorial photographer for The Washington Post and The London Times during her 15-year career, said that using her camera, she was able to tell stories of success in the world of Afghan business and sports, sidelining the rockets during times when broader narratives of conflict and loss were dominating Afghanistan.
She remembers...
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