Afghan woman journalist sells clothes on street

A woman journalist in Afghanistan’s Kabul has been found selling clothes on a street after she was rendered jobless following the Taliban takeover of the country.

Farzana Ayoubi worked for several media organizations in Afghanistan but has been forced to work as a street vendor because the Taliban do not allow women to function in the media industry, Afghanistan’s Tolo News TV reported.

Miraqa Popal, who was the head of Tolo News until after the Taliban takeover but has fled to Albania since, shared two photographs of Ayoubi on Twitter. Tolo News ran a video report showing women customers bargaining with Ayoubi who sells used clothes.

An old footage shows Ayoubi presenting news on the state-own Afghanistan National Television.

Ayoubi, 27, says she needs to support her three-member family. “The international community and the media watchdogs should consider our situation,” she said.

The Taliban government of Kabul told female journalists working at the state-owned broadcaster and private run TV channels to go home a few weeks after they took over the city on August 15. Initially, a Taliban spokesman had granted an interview to Beheshta Arghand on Tolo News. However, She eventually fled the country.

The Afghan Journalists’ Federation and Afghanistan’s National Journalists’ Union have urged the international community to “pay serious attention to the media in Afghanistan.”