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Africa: World Refugee Day – Telling Their Stories

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Africa: World Refugee Day – Telling Their Stories


Of the 122 million people globally displaced by persecution, violence or human rights violations, 42.7 million are refugees who have fled across borders, according to new data from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

While hotspots include Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Palestine, displacement affects every region of the world.

In the lead-up to World Refugee Day, Friday, the UN is spotlighting the importance of solidarity with refugees through support, solutions, and the power of storytelling.

Zahra Nader: Reporting from exile

Ahead of World Refugee Day, UN News spoke with Zahra Nader, a refugee, journalist and women’s rights activist from Afghanistan.

At age six, Nader and her family fled to Iran after the Taliban first took power, where she was denied access to education and faced racism.

Returning to Afghanistan years later, the stark contrast between life in exile and the opportunity to attend school ignited her passion for journalism and advocacy.

In August 2021, while she was pursuing a PhD in Canada, the Taliban regained control, shattering her dreams of returning home to teach and conduct fieldwork.

“I felt as a journalist who grew up in Kabul, who became a journalist there, I have a right and responsibility to tell these stories of women in Afghanistan,” she said. “This is really inhuman, for half of the population of a country to be stripped of their basic human rights because they were born female.”

Channeling that pain into action, she founded Zan Times, an Afghan women-led newsroom in exile documenting human rights abuses in Afghanistan, particularly those affecting women.

Despite limited funding and growing risks to her reporters, Nader continues her work to ensure that Afghan women are seen and heard.

She described the situation in Afghanistan as “the most severe women’s rights crisis of our time“, calling international action insufficient and warning that inaction emboldens the Taliban and its misogynistic ideologies.

Despite her trauma and current inability to return, Nader remains optimistic and urges young Afghan women to resist through learning and preparing for a better future.

“I am hopeful, and I want to be also part of that change, to envision a better future for Afghanistan, and do my part to make that future happen.”