Zahra Joya

Zahra Joya is an Afghan journalist and the editor-in-chief and founder of Rukhshana Media, a news agency reporting on life for women and girls in Afghanistan. Rukhshana was named after a young woman who was stoned to death by the Taliban in 2015. Its reports are published in both Persian/Dari and English, and under pseudonyms to protect the journalists’ identities. Just before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in May 2021, she collaborated with The Guardian and published the Women Report Afghanistan project, to expose how women were being treated in the country. After being critical of the Talban, she fled to the UK, where she continues to run Rukhshana Media channel. She was named one of Time Magazine’s Women of the Year 2022 and listed in the BBC list of 100 influential women in the same year. She was recently appointed a By-Fellow at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge (UK).