Radio Begum, based in Taliban-controlled Kabul, broadcasts the voices of Afghan women who have been silenced.
Women-produced programmes, such as instructional shows, book readings, and call-in counselling, overwhelm the airways.
For the time being, they operate with the approval of the Taliban, who retook control in August and have limited women’s and girls’ capacity to work and attend school.
“We’re not giving up,” Hamida Aman, the station’s creator, said. Hamida Aman, 48, grew raised in Switzerland after her family fled Afghanistan a few years after the Soviet Union invaded the country.
“We have to show that we don’t need to be scared,” said Aman, who returned after the overthrow of the Taliban’s first regime in 2001 by US-led foreign forces.
“We must occupy the public sphere.”
This year’s station was launched on March 8th, International Women’s Day, five months before the Taliban marched into Kabul and declared victory against the US-backed government.
It continues to broadcast over Kabul and the surrounding areas – and live on Facebook – from a working-class neighbourhood.
“Begum” used to be an aristocratic title in South Asia, but it currently refers to a married Muslim woman.
“This station is a vessel for women’s voices, their pain, their frustration,” Aman said.
In September, the Taliban agreed to let the broadcaster stay on the airwaves, but with new restrictions.
The ten or so employees of Radio Begum used to share an office with male coworkers from a youth radio station.
They are now separated. Each gender has its own level, and in front of the women’s office, a wide opaque curtain has been constructed.
Traditional tunes and “quieter music” have taken the role of pop music, according to Aman.
Staff members, on the other hand, described working at the station as a “luxury,” with many female government employees prevented from returning to their jobs.
Many of the Taliban’s policies have yet to be formalised, leaving gaps in how they are applied around the country. Since the takeover, the majority of public secondary schools for girls have been closed.
The radio studio, however, resembles a classroom twice a day.
Six girls and three boys, all aged 13 or 14, poured over their books as the presenter conducted an on-air lesson about social justice when the news agency paid a visit.
“Extremism is antithetical to social justice,” said the 19-year-old instructor, who was a journalism student until a few months ago.
Since the Taliban closed several secondary schools, Mursal, a 13-year-old girl, has been going to the studio to learn.
“My message to girls who can’t go to school is to listen to our programme carefully, to use this golden chance and opportunity,” she said. “They may not have it again.”
Adults can also take classes on-air. In one of these lessons, station director Saba Chaman, 24, read Michelle Obama’s book in Dari. She’s especially proud of a show where listeners can call in for psychological help.
According to the former education ministry, only 18 percent of Afghan women were literate in 2016, compared to 62 percent of men.
“Women who are illiterate are like blind people,” one woman who cannot read said on air. “When I go to the pharmacy they give me expired medication. If I could read they wouldn’t do it.”
Aman spoke with Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid a few months after the Taliban took power and assured him that the radio was “trying to give a voice to women.” She described him as “extremely encouraging.”
However, the future remains unknown.
Tolo News, the country’s main independent television network, stated in September that more than 150 outlets had closed due to limitations and financial difficulties.
Advertisement income is no longer collected by Radio Begum.
If no money are received within three months, the voices of these women would be silenced on Afghanistan’s airwaves, according to Chaman.
“My only cause for hope at the moment is knowing that I am doing something important in my life to help Afghan women.”
