AP Photo/Rahmat Gul
- Two female journalists in Afghanistan were visited by members of the Taliban on Sunday, according to CNN.
- Several women reporters in the country have received threatening calls from the Taliban in recent days, the outlet reported.
- The Taliban is particularly hostile toward both the free press and women in public roles.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Taliban fighters visited the homes of two female journalists on Sunday, leaving both women “shaken psychologically,” according to CNN.
Reports of the visits come as female journalists in Afghanistan face mounting fears for their lives and safety as the Taliban takes over the country following the withdrawal of US forces and the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government.
According to a CNN source, one of the female journalists who was visited by the Taliban said: “I am very worried about my safety and that of my family.”
Multiple female journalists in the country have received threatening calls from the Taliban, which have ramped up in recent days, CNN reported. One high-profile reporter in Kabul told the outlet that she received a call from the Taliban telling her they “will come soon.”
The Taliban is particularly hostile toward both the free press and women serving in public-facing roles. The group’s hasty take-over will likely undo much of the progress Afghanistan had made on press freedom and women’s equality in the last two decades.
“For many years, I worked as a journalist…to raise the voice of Afghans, especially Afghan women, but now our identity is being destroyed and nothing has been done by us to deserve this,” one journalist, identified as Aaisha to protect her privacy, told the Guardian.
“In the last 24 hours, our lives have changed and we have been confined to our homes, and death threatens us at every moment,” she added.
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