Zan Times

Zan Times is a newsroom run by women that highlights the human rights conditions in Afghanistan, especially concerning women, the LGBTQ community, and environmental matters. Instead of focusing on the actions of those committing violations, Zan Times shares stories and insights from the individuals who experience and challenge these injustices.

LGBTQ+, Women

English, Persian

Online/Digital

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Articles

Zahra Nader, Afghan journalist, seeks sustainability for Zan Times

2 months ago | zantimes.com | Ashley Bates

Share onThis article appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of the Wallace House Journal. Zahra Nader vividly recalls the day her youngest sister was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. There was no running water in her family’s home, so Nader, then age 15, ran to get water to clean the baby — the sixth daughter in a family with only one son. She knew that the arrival of yet another girl in their male-dominated culture signaled more financial hardship for her parents.
Inside the Taliban's demolition campaign in Kabul

Nov 18, 2024 | zantimes.com | Kreshma Fakhri |Jessica Purkiss

Reports November 18, 2024 Share on By: Kreshma Fakhri and Jessica PurkissMaryam’s in-laws had owned their home in Kabul’s Khair Khana neighbourhood for the last five decades when the Taliban-run municipality told them it was time to leave. In 2023, the Kabul municipality informed them that the house was in the path of a new road. They were given a year to vacate, but they say this year was quickly shrunk to a month, and then to just a week.
Encounters with Afghan refugees, workers, lawyers, and judges

Sep 10, 2024 | zantimes.com | Stuart Russell

Opinion September 10, 2024 Share onShe was in her 70s, a frail woman who had lost her husband and children to the Taliban. She was also dying of cancer. I was in tears as she was testifying in front of me almost 25 years ago, and I was again today, remembering her. From 1997 until 2004 I was an administrative judge at the Refugee Review Tribunal in Sydney, Australia, and during that time I oversaw many Afghan cases, all of which I accepted.
An editor’s note on the second anniversary of Zan Times

Aug 8, 2024 | zantimes.com | Zahra Nader

Share onThis is unlike any other pieces I have written for Zan Times. I have been thinking about what I should tell you, our valued reader on the occasion of Zan Times’ second anniversary. Then, I thought, nothing is more powerful than an honest reflection. So, here you go!Zan Times is a labour of love and passion by those of us who felt the weight of responsibility on our shoulders and needed to do something to ease our own pain and suffering. We were journalists.
Why the Taliban use rape to silence women?

Jul 5, 2024 | zantimes.com | Zahra Nader

Share on Rape is the worst thing that can ever happen to a woman in Afghanistan. I know that because I am an Afghan woman who grew up in Kabul. There has always been an unwritten curfew for all women in Afghanistan: we were not supposed to be out after 6 p.m. I really didn’t question why but grew up accepting that being home by 6 p.m. was part of being a woman. One evening in 2016, I broke that curfew.
‘I begged them not to harass me’: Women accuse Taliban of sexual assault after arrest for ‘bad hijab’

Jun 25, 2024 | zantimes.com | Zahra Nader

Share on By: Ahmad Ahmadi*, Zahra Nader, and Farshid Aram*In late December 2023, 16-year-old Zahra* said a goodbye to her mother as she left home wearing a long, ankle-length dress. She went to her cousin’s shop in west Kabul, home to more than one million Hazara-Shias. Her mother didn’t see her again for two weeks. “That night, Zahra didn’t come home. My husband called and said they are going to one of our relatives’ homes,” says her mother, Somaia*.
Why women’s rights groups worry about the upcoming UN meeting on Afghanistan

Feb 15, 2024 | zantimes.com | Zahra Nader

By Zahra Nader and Matin Mehrab* On February 18 and 19, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will convene a meeting on Afghanistan of member states, regional organizations, and special envoys in Doha. The announcement of the meeting has produced mixed reactions and debate among Afghan women’s rights groups in Afghanistan and outside the country.Some worry about a lack of representation of women protesters at the meeting. Some want women to boycott the meeting altogether.
What happened to Qadria and Atiq? The Crime of love under the Taliban.

Feb 12, 2024 | zantimes.com | Zahra Nader |Kreshma Fakhri

Reports February 12, 2024 Share on By: Zahra Nader and Kreshma Fakhri It was late July 2023 when news began to circulate on social media: The Taliban were going to stone to death an unmarried couple for eloping. The story was repeated in several local media sources within Afghanistan, including the country’s well-known newspaper, , which quoted sources saying that the stoning would occur the next day, July 29. In the end, the couple was not stoned to death last summer.
Muslim scholars urge the Taliban to release God (Political satire)

Nov 8, 2023 | zantimes.com | Musa Zafar

Riyadh: At the conclusion of a two-day conference, Islamic scholars from around the world issued a peculiar plea to the Taliban — calling for the release of God from what they deemed an arbitrary detention. Using a subdued tone, the scholars criticized the Taliban for their alleged atrocities, particularly their inhumane treatment of all political prisoners, including God.
The stolen part of Hell (Political satire)

Oct 13, 2023 | zantimes.com | Musa Zafar

By Musa Zafar The angels reported that one part of Hell had gone missing. A section of Hell was lost because all the angels were focused on the security of Heaven as no one had imagined that Hell – a place no follower of any the religions wanted to enter – could be stolen. The irony was that the thieves did not steal a part from the outskirts of Hell, which are slightly milder and tolerable. The missing section was right at the centre of Hell.