Zan TV (Women's TV)

Following a city-wide billboard campaign featuring a group of young women standing with arms folded, Zan TV launched with a panel discussion about the right to vote and a Facebook cover photo that read: "We mirror you all". "We want women to have an active role in politics and society," says Nasrine Nawa, age 26, Zan's director of news programming. "We're empowering them to lead independent lives outside the home." Fifty women aged 17 to 28 work for Zan; half are qualified, half are learning on the job. (Many trained journalists are jobless because most TV stations won't employ women; other young women might not have access to education because of where they live or their family.) Zan also employs 10 men to train women in operating cameras and editing film. It posts jobs on its Facebook page.

The TV station was founded by the media entrepreneur Hamid Samar, whose goal is to build an audience by developing shows on the issues affecting millennial Afghan women, such as negotiating Islam as a feminist, securing reproductive rights, and managing finances and careers. Among the programmes are the Daily News show hosted by Yasamin Yarmal and a weekly evening show that features conversations with radical Afghan women such as the politician and activist Fareeda Kuchi Balkhi, from Afghanistan's nomadic Kuchi tribe. Twenty-two year old Mehria Azali, a journalist and presenter at Zan, says she is keen to introduce a strong female narrative to the Afghan news agenda and to explore issues such as underage marriage, rape, and access to education. Zan also runs a daytime cookery programme on how to make fast, healthy meals. In the evening, the hour-long entertainment show In Focus recently showcased an all-female orchestra.

For more information, see the Zan TV website.

Women, Rights

In Afghanistan, the television industry is run solely by men; as recently as 2001, journalism and even access to education for women were banned.

In 2015, research by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Global Rights found that nearly nine out of 10 women in Afghanistan were subjected to physical, sexual, or psychological violence. Nawa and her team are talking directly to those women. "A lot of abuse towards women is hidden by police, so we have a whole programme about justice for women," says Azali. She is looking for a lawyer to come in and talk about rape within marriage. Azali and Nawa also want to challenge the Afghan view of feminism. "Some TV stations in Afghanistan prepare reports about the abuse of women," says Nawa, "but they don't report everything as they don't want to be accused of being feminist. Most forms of women's empowerment are seen as divisive and anti-men, but we want to remove the negative attitude to women’s issues in this country."

As of August 2017, an average of 90,000 people are tuning into the morning news programme.