Exiled Afghan journalist Zahra Nader says the impact of NATO intervention, the return of the Taliban, and the lack of women’s rights was consequential for press freedom in her home country.
She told a Humber audience that independent journalism in the country has disappeared under the current Taliban regime. But during the U.S. military occupation, several independent outlets operated in the Asian nation.
Nader is part of Zan Times, a news organization launched after the 2021 Taliban takeover to “resist” the new regime and help women who are being oppressed by it. Nader felt it was necessary to create a new media organization in Afghanistan.
“Zan Times was a response to the Taliban takeover in August 2021,” she said. “We began Zan Times in August 2022, a year after the Taliban takeover, and this for us was a way to resist the Taliban.”
Nader became the New York Times’ Kabul bureau chief in 2016.
Nader said that becoming a journalist wasn’t a conscious choice, but rather it was a way to hold the powerful accountable.
After the 9/11 attacks in New York City and the Pentagon, the U.S. and their allies invaded Afghanistan.
As a result, the country’s news industry became funded by the U.S. government, particularly the Department of State, Department of Defense, and USAID.
“They have their own message, and one of the biggest messages was how to counter extremist ideologies, and one way to do that was to build the media,” Nader said.
Among the problems with the American funding was that they were limited to a U.S. agenda.
While the U.S. military encouraged the Afghan press to cover atrocities by the Taliban, it refused to let them cover atrocities by the Americans, said Nader.
The main news network in Afghanistan is Radio Television Afghanistan, which broadcasts news and films. Foreign funding contributed to its revenue during the U.S. occupation.
About halfway through her speech, Nader began covering women’s rights in the Afghan media.
As a female journalist, she faced numerous obstacles. Women couldn’t cover attacks or military engagements, couldn’t work evenings, and couldn’t travel freely in their own country.
“None of the media I ever worked for ever asked me to do any of those things. It was always assumed that I cannot do it because I am a woman,” Nader said.
She also said that when the New York Times hired her in 2016, she was the first female journalist working with international media in Afghanistan.
“We were not telling our own stories. Our stories were always told by male journalists or international journalists in Afghanistan,” she said.
Nader broadened the discussion of women’s rights to include worldwide trends.
“Don’t look at what’s happening in Afghanistan, about only a situation about women in Afghanistan or only a problem in Afghanistan, look at the consequences it has for women’s rights globally,” she added during a post-speech discussion.
Afghanistan is considered one of the worst countries for women’s rights in the world. And this directly impacts its media landscape.
The 2025 World Report by Human Rights Watch reported the country’s crackdown on human rights, particularly against women, worsened in 2024. Women and girls are prohibited from working, accessing education, and exercising their freedom of movement and expression. Access to health care was also restricted.
Nader connected the actions of the Taliban regime to the rise of authoritarianism and dictatorships around the world.
“Most of the authoritarian regimes, they copy each other, they learn from each other, and they empower each other, so I say, the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has lots of effects on other extremist forces elsewhere,” she said in a post-event interview.
She said these “extremist forces” are not limited to traditional dictatorships but rather have been seen in liberal democracies like the United States.
“What’s happening there in terms of how women’s rights are under attack there, so we see that they’re learning,” she said of the Trump administration.
By “learning” she means replicating the actions of authoritarian regimes.
Her speech was a stark reminder of the importance of women’s rights and press freedom not only in Afghanistan but also for Canadian human rights advocates.
