Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan: Zahra Joya on Codifying a New International Crime and Enforcing Taliban Accountability
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2026/02/15
Zahra Joya is an Afghan journalist and editor whose work centers on human rights, accountability, and women’s lived realities under Taliban rule. She leads Rukhshana Media, a women-centered newsroom that documents abuses, publishes first-person narratives, and collaborates with international outlets. Joya emphasizes trauma-aware reporting, rigorous verification, and source protection for in-country contributors who face surveillance, arrest, torture, and death. She argues that the Taliban’s structural exclusion of women and girls from education, work, movement, and public life demands precise legal naming and sustained international pressure. From exile, she treats journalism as evidence, turning testimony into records for advocates and historians.
In conversation with Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Zahra Joya argues that “gender apartheid” best captures the Taliban’s systematic erasure of Afghan women and should be codified as an independent international crime. She contends that current ICC efforts are too narrow, noting that warrants for a few leaders change little without broader investigations and enforceable arrests. Joya explains how Rukhshana Media operates through strict physical and digital security, anonymous in-country reporting, and rigorous corroboration. She describes journalism as both storytelling and documentation, using women’s first-person narratives and investigations into torture, poverty, and healthcare collapse to reshape legal framing, advocacy, and sports sanctions.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You use the term “gender apartheid.” Where should this be codified in international and humanitarian law?
Zahra Joya: Apartheid means segregation, and the term originates from South Africa. It was used during the era of racial apartheid in South Africa and was eventually recognized by the United Nations as a distinct crime, which contributed to the end of racial apartheid there. In Afghanistan, this term is used because it has a historical precedent that led to success.
Afghan women activists used this term during the first Taliban regime in the 1990s, when the Taliban’s misogynistic policies completely excluded half of Afghanistan’s population—women—from human society.
After the September 11 attacks and the presence of the West in Afghanistan, the situation changed and women re-entered public life, so the use of this term was no longer strongly felt. However, after the Taliban’s return to power, women have once again been effectively erased from society. Therefore, Afghan women are using this term again.
What the Taliban are doing to Afghan women goes beyond terms such as crimes against humanity. The depth of the Taliban’s crimes against women is profound. These policies need a specific name, and that name is gender apartheid. This must be recognized as an independent crime under international humanitarian law. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls are systematically and structurally deprived of their fundamental human rights. If this crime is recognized, no regime anywhere in the world will succeed in suppressing women in this way again.
Jacobsen: After the ICC prosecutor’s moves on Taliban leaders, what does real accountability look like now?
Joya: At the International Criminal Court, there is currently only one case against the Taliban under crimes against humanity. So far, arrest warrants have been issued for only two individuals: the Taliban leader and the head of the group’s Supreme Court. Unfortunately, this is currently ineffective, because these Taliban members do not travel outside Afghanistan. Key figures and prominent leaders of the Taliban must be investigated and subjected to arrest warrants.
At present, this case is not practical, and even after the issuance of arrest warrants, there has been no change in the Taliban’s behaviour, policies, or approach toward Afghan women.
Jacobsen: Rukhshana depends on women reporting from inside Afghanistan, often anonymously. What are the most important security practices?
Joya: We are a group of journalists, mostly women, working under extremely difficult conditions. Independent journalism under Taliban rule is like playing with the blade of a sword. At any moment, journalists can be identified, arrested, tortured, or even killed. For this reason, Rukhshana’s security protocols are extremely strict. For example, the identities of our colleagues are hidden. We must consider various methods to protect their identity and safety. Their physical and digital security is critically important to us.
Jacobsen: When women are criminalized for visibility and speech, how do you corroborate stories and protect sources?
Joya: At Rukhshana, we do not only practice journalism; we also document human rights violations. We give Afghan women a voice so they can resist the Taliban’s system of erasure. We also fight for our own rights as independent journalists and as women journalists. Although the space is extremely limited, people—especially women—deeply resent the Taliban. Whatever happens to them, they share it with our colleagues, and the public plays a major role in the process of information-sharing.
We always try to adhere to professional journalistic principles. For example, many times journalists outside Afghanistan contact the Taliban and try to hold them accountable. However, they consistently refuse to respond to our inquiries. The Taliban are not accountable to the people of Afghanistan.
Jacobsen: What kinds of stories most reliably move the needle internationally, e.g., in legal framing, diaspora advocacy, or proof of institutional policy intent?
Joya: We publish a wide range of stories. Over the past four years, we have collaborated with at least 7 major international media outlets. Reports by my colleagues have been published in reputable outlets such as TIME Magazine, The Guardian, and media organizations in Spain and Italy. These stories range from accounts of Taliban torture and abuse to poverty, lack of security, and shortages in healthcare services.
At Rukhshana, we have a dedicated section called Women’s Narratives, where women write directly and without intermediaries about their lived experiences in a patriarchal society—about Taliban violence outside the home and domestic violence inside the home—and share these experiences with our audience. We have created a space for dialogue for these women so they can speak about their problems and so that solutions can be sought.
Jacobsen: On cricket and “sportswashing”: what would a meaningful response from bodies like the ICC/boards/sponsors look like?
Joya: The Taliban, as an authoritarian group, are actively seeking international recognition. They use every opportunity to present a more favourable image of themselves to the world. Afghanistan is currently a country without a destiny. Its people are without identity, because we do not have a constitution that guarantees our individual and social identity. The people of Afghanistan are, in effect, a people without a state.
In this context, the Taliban frequently exploit sports teams—such as the national cricket team—for their own benefit. If the Taliban are recognized as a regime that has established gender apartheid, then all sports teams representing Afghanistan under Taliban rule should be sanctioned and boycotted.
Jacobsen: Exile journalism is safer than Kabul. What are the biggest operational threats you face outside Afghanistan?
Joya: Our team is both safe and at risk. Most of our colleagues are inside Afghanistan and work in hiding, and we never know what might happen today or tomorrow. Therefore, we do not feel secure as a team. As individuals, some of us—including myself—who are outside Afghanistan have relative physical safety. We are physically safe, but mentally wounded. Our souls are injured. We are full of pain and suffering.
With such conditions, perhaps people can never truly be happy. When you are psychologically and emotionally wounded, that in itself becomes the greatest challenge. Intellectual and journalistic work requires a free and joyful spirit, which we do not have. At the same time, given the workload and the difficulty of this field, we have very limited access to resources. We never have sufficient funding to expand our work. We are always dependent on external support. When there is no funding, the constant concern is how we can continue our work.
Jacobsen: For people who want to help: what are the top three actions that are high-impact?
Joya: With your support, an Afghan journalist can work safely, independently, and with dignity.
Your support = stories that are seen and heard. Afghan women are living through the most critical phase of their lives. They need their voices to be heard and their pain to be seen.
Your support = independence from politics and power. Rukhshana is a fully independent media outlet founded on the values of human rights and democracy. This media organization is not affiliated with any political party or powerful institution. We need independent institutions that can operate freely and support a socially oppressed group without interference.
Jacobsen: Thank you very much for the opportunity and your time, Zahra.
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