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Transcript/Script EnglishUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: TV Press Freedom Afghan Women
HEADLINE: Afghan Women Absent From Jobs — and Stories — in Media
TEASER: Azita Nazimi and other exiled Afghan female journalists are frustrated they can no longer report on key issues including women’s health
PUBLISHED AT: 03/08/2023 AT 11:15am
BYLINE: Muska Safi, Lisa Bryant
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Islamabad, Pakistan; Paris, France
VIDEOGRAPHER: Salman Idris Qazi, Ali Hassan, Lisa Bryant
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: JJ, Reifenrath, DJ (ok)
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA shot interviews, BROLL. Two clips courtesy TOLO TV
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:26
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
TYPE:
EDITOR NOTES: For Inside Story/Press Freedom March 8. Can be released for Int. Women’s Day March 8. Questions/review Jessica Jerreat and Roshan Noorzai. Nawid in Afghanistan will produce. Shaista will narrate))
((INTRO))
[[Forced into exile, Afghan journalist Azita Nazimi is frustrated at not being able to report on issues affecting women still inside Afghanistan. Muska Safi and Lisa Bryant have the story for VOA, narrated by Shaista Sadat Lami.]]
((NARRATOR)) ((Mandatory CG: TOLO TV))
As a journalist who covered health and women’s issues — and as a mother raising four children from exile in Pakistan — Azita Nazimi knows what news Afghan women find important.
For 15 years, she reported for stations including TOLO TV, 1TV [[pronounced Yak TV]] and Radio Begum. ((end courtesy))
But when the Taliban entered Kabul in August of 2021, Nazimi and her female colleagues were told to go home.
Nazimi remembers what was lost when the Taliban took over.
((Azita Nazimi, Afghan Journalist)) ((Female, Dari)))
“All our dreams and hopes. The achievements that women made in the past 20 years and the main achievement of the republic, having freedom of speech and press.”
((NARRATOR))
About six weeks after the fall of Kabul, Nazimi joined a group protesting the rules imposed on women.
((Azita Nazimi, Afghan Journalist (Female, Dari)))
“We wanted to raise our voices to gain our freedoms. But, on the contrary, no one listened to us. And our voices were silenced. That was why we left Afghanistan.”
((NARRATOR))
The Taliban takeover had dire consequences on Afghan media, says Rebecca Vincent of Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that advocates for press freedom.
[[For radio, Rebecca Vincent is director of operations and campaigns at Reporters Without Borders ]]
((Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders)) ((Female, English))
“The numbers of working journalists have decreased drastically for both sexes but disproportionately so for women.”
As of 2023, 11 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces have no female journalists at all. And of the 2,700 women reporters pre-Taliban, a little over 600 are still working, says Vincent.
((Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders)) ((Female, English))
“Women are largely absent now — not just in the storytelling role, but in the stories themselves. We’ve seen increasing restrictions by the Taliban on not only who can present the news and in what way, but who they’re allowed to interview, who can be present in these broadcasts.”
((NARRATOR))
The shrinking space for female journalists mirrors that for Afghan women in general.
Under Taliban rule, women are denied education and, oftentimes, employment and are forbidden to travel unless accompanied by a close male relative. Local media in recent weeks reported that pharmacies had been told to stop providing access to contraceptives, a claim the Taliban rejected.
For a journalist who used to report on women’s health, Nazimi is frustrated.
((Azita Nazimi, Journalist)) ((Female, Dari)))
“If I could or I were allowed to, I would focus on women's issues, particularly health and women's empowerment, such as in social and economic sectors. Unfortunately, no journalist is allowed to work on such issues.”
((NARRATOR))
Afghanistan still has media, but, Vincent says, the ability of independent journalists to keep working is deteriorating.
((For Muska Safi in Islamabad and Lisa Bryant in Paris, Shaista Sadat Lami, VOA News))
Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: TV Press Freedom Afghan Women
HEADLINE: Afghan Women Absent From Jobs — and Stories — in Media
TEASER: Azita Nazimi and other exiled Afghan female journalists are frustrated they can no longer report on key issues including women’s health
PUBLISHED AT: 03/08/2023 AT 11:15am
BYLINE: Muska Safi, Lisa Bryant
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Islamabad, Pakistan; Paris, France
VIDEOGRAPHER: Salman Idris Qazi, Ali Hassan, Lisa Bryant
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: JJ, Reifenrath, DJ (ok)
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA shot interviews, BROLL. Two clips courtesy TOLO TV
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:26
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
TYPE:
EDITOR NOTES: For Inside Story/Press Freedom March 8. Can be released for Int. Women’s Day March 8. Questions/review Jessica Jerreat and Roshan Noorzai. Nawid in Afghanistan will produce. Shaista will narrate))
((INTRO))
[[Forced into exile, Afghan journalist Azita Nazimi is frustrated at not being able to report on issues affecting women still inside Afghanistan. Muska Safi and Lisa Bryant have the story for VOA, narrated by Shaista Sadat Lami.]]
((NARRATOR)) ((Mandatory CG: TOLO TV))
As a journalist who covered health and women’s issues — and as a mother raising four children from exile in Pakistan — Azita Nazimi knows what news Afghan women find important.
For 15 years, she reported for stations including TOLO TV, 1TV [[pronounced Yak TV]] and Radio Begum. ((end courtesy))
But when the Taliban entered Kabul in August of 2021, Nazimi and her female colleagues were told to go home.
Nazimi remembers what was lost when the Taliban took over.
((Azita Nazimi, Afghan Journalist)) ((Female, Dari)))
“All our dreams and hopes. The achievements that women made in the past 20 years and the main achievement of the republic, having freedom of speech and press.”
((NARRATOR))
About six weeks after the fall of Kabul, Nazimi joined a group protesting the rules imposed on women.
((Azita Nazimi, Afghan Journalist (Female, Dari)))
“We wanted to raise our voices to gain our freedoms. But, on the contrary, no one listened to us. And our voices were silenced. That was why we left Afghanistan.”
((NARRATOR))
The Taliban takeover had dire consequences on Afghan media, says Rebecca Vincent of Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that advocates for press freedom.
[[For radio, Rebecca Vincent is director of operations and campaigns at Reporters Without Borders ]]
((Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders)) ((Female, English))
“The numbers of working journalists have decreased drastically for both sexes but disproportionately so for women.”
As of 2023, 11 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces have no female journalists at all. And of the 2,700 women reporters pre-Taliban, a little over 600 are still working, says Vincent.
((Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders)) ((Female, English))
“Women are largely absent now — not just in the storytelling role, but in the stories themselves. We’ve seen increasing restrictions by the Taliban on not only who can present the news and in what way, but who they’re allowed to interview, who can be present in these broadcasts.”
((NARRATOR))
The shrinking space for female journalists mirrors that for Afghan women in general.
Under Taliban rule, women are denied education and, oftentimes, employment and are forbidden to travel unless accompanied by a close male relative. Local media in recent weeks reported that pharmacies had been told to stop providing access to contraceptives, a claim the Taliban rejected.
For a journalist who used to report on women’s health, Nazimi is frustrated.
((Azita Nazimi, Journalist)) ((Female, Dari)))
“If I could or I were allowed to, I would focus on women's issues, particularly health and women's empowerment, such as in social and economic sectors. Unfortunately, no journalist is allowed to work on such issues.”
((NARRATOR))
Afghanistan still has media, but, Vincent says, the ability of independent journalists to keep working is deteriorating.
((For Muska Safi in Islamabad and Lisa Bryant in Paris, Shaista Sadat Lami, VOA News))
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