“Mixed feelings. I was happy to have found a job in my field, but I was worried about my family. I understood when I worked in journalism again, as a journalist I knew myself. I would cover again women issue. I would work against the Taliban again. And I would put my family in danger. On the other side I was happy – I am here, I have a job, it is a free country. It is secure, they granted me anything I wanted, I will have the right to work freely, without any interruption or interference. I have a connection to Afghanistan and my hands are free, I can work on any issue. When I arrived in Prague, it was 2022, August 1st.” “When I see people in Prague, I feel like they live in heaven. When I see women here, they can walk freely, they can choose whatever they want. I feel like they are so lucky.” “Being a woman in Afghanistan is a crime. The world should understand that they are human beings and they need help. All the world together should help these women. They are human beings and they deserve what other women deserve, what other women have in the rest of the world. And I hope, that one day I will see the women of Afghanistan in their best situation. We deserve it. I know the women of Afghanistan are very brave, they work hard.”
“These women go to the streets and ask, why are you doing this? The women have the right to educate themselves! These women protest and the terrible thing that always happens at these protests is that the Taliban fires and also sometimes they beat the journalists and also the women. Once I was beaten on that protest and I think before me one of my colleagues, also a female journalist, was beaten on the protests by the Taliban.”
“We went there and when the women started to burn hijab in front of the Taliban, they fired. They fired at the women and then they tried to separate these women form each other. Because they were holding each other hands and chanting words like Women, Freedom and Food. They had these slogans. Taliban tried to separate them. And they started to beat them. When they beat them, we tried to take the pictures. We tried to shoot this situation. And they beat us as well: Why are you trying to take a picture, why are you trying to film this situation? Go away, who are you? And then they took us to the custody.”
“There was a bomb blast once, before the Taliban (took over). It was in the district of Shash Darak. We lost six journalists in the suicide attack. I think it was suicide attack. There was a bomb blast first in Shash Darak, near to the American embassy, I don´t remember exactly, maybe it was another country´s embassy. But there was Radio Azadi office, bureau of Radio Azadi and also other media in Shash Darak. There was a bomb blast and after that, when the journalists came there to cover it, there was a suicide attack. And the people who gathered there, all of the died.” “And you were there as well?” “Yes, we stayed alive because we were late. Otherwise we would die as well. Me and my cameraman were late, because of the traffic. When we arrived, the bomb blast had already happened, and the journalists who were there for the coverage, all of them died. We had a very terrible footages of that bomb blast. The journalists are live in the television, then the bomb blast happens and everything goes dark.”
“I was studying in the evenings, from like five o´clock until nine o´clock. The university was very far from my home and every night my father was waiting for me in front of the door. The driver would take me from home and then return me safe home. These days were hard. The Taliban did suicide attacks everywhere. In front of hotels, in front of homes, in front of embassies, in front of any ministry. When they did suicide attacks at university, they would go inside and kill people. We had the example of Kabul University. First there was bomb blast at the entrance and then the Taliban fighters entered the university and killed most of the students. They were in Kardan University as well. And my father told me not to go, to wait at least one month, two months. But I said it was not possible. I would miss the class and not cover it. And I paid a huge amount of money for that. And when we went to university, I told my sister to take picture of me, one on which I look beautiful. And when I die, she should give this picture to the press, to the television. Because I wanted to look beautiful there. And that was the reality of Afghanistan, that was the reality of Kabul. You are a healthy human being, you leave your home in the morning and they return you as a dead body to your family in the evening.”
“Yes, it was a female, women´s committee, but the men were going to represent them in the conferences. Why? We have to represent them! We had teachers there, they were all women. But the society has made them not to speak for themselves. It was difficult. If you speak, people will label you: You are not a very good Muslim and Pashtun woman, that’s why you will be single forever, you will not find a husband. Therefore, most of the women and girls would prefer to stay calm and say: Ok, you go, you represent us. But I said: No! We have to represent ourselves. When I first went there, I covered my face but then I just turned it off and said: I am not going to cover my face any more. You can see my hair, you can see my face. I may not be beautiful, but this is who I am. You can see me, you do not have to research how I look like. And then I started arguing with my teachers. When they said something wrong to me, I just replied. Why are you telling me these words? And I was alone in my class. The question for everyone was, why am I studying among these boys? Everyone thought that at the end, I will pick one of them as a husband. But I didn´t do it, because I was not there for getting married. I was there for changing things.”
Farida Sial comes from Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, but was born in the Haji refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. At that time, Afghanistan was for the first time taken over by the radical Taliban movement, against which her father, an officer in the Afghan army, had fought. Her father nearly lost his life in the fighting and was seriously wounded before he managed to join his family in exile. In 2003, after the fall of the Taliban, the family was allowed to return to their disused apartment in Kabul. Hamid Karzai became president of the country and Farida’s father was reinstated in the army. In Kabul, Farida became passionate about learning, the difference between female and male pupils was not noticeable in schools yet. But from 2012 onwards, the Taliban began to regain strength, and extremists from the Islamic State movement were also active in the border areas. Farida decided to study university in the conservative environment of Nandaraghar province. The university campus there was guarded by soldiers, and she was the only girl among the two hundred students of journalism. After returning to Kabul, she went on to study for a master’s degree in international relations, while also working for the media - first in her native Pashto for the Kilid radio station, then in Dari for the TOLOnews agency. In spite of social pressure, she didn’t just want to edit texts, but went into the field to do investigative and reporting work. This was dangerous, especially after 2021, when the Taliban came to power again. Farida nearly lost her life twice in bomb attacks and was beaten by Taliban riot police while covering protests against the exclusion of girls from education. In the summer of 2022, Farida Sial began working for Radio Azadi (the Afghan offshoot of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) and has lived in Prague ever since. She continues to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and in particular on the role of women in Afghan society.
