In June 1951, Australia's first School of the Air was established. Its aim was to bring isolated children out of the silence of outback Australia via two-way radio and give them a sense of belonging in the air-waves classroom. Seventy years later, that iconic Australian institution inspired the creation of another facility to bring education, learning and community to a very different cohort of isolated school children – the girls of Afghanistan.
In 2021, Radio Begum for Afghan women and girls started its operations, staffed by a female team of journalists, reporters, and education and health specialists. Today, it broadcasts six hours of radio lessons a day as well as health, psychology and entertainment programs all designed to inform and empower Afghanistan’s women and girls who are banned from attending school or university after Grade Six. According to UN Women, a complex patchwork of more than 80 edicts, directives and decrees introduced by the Taliban, which came to power the same year Radio Begum began, has systematically targeted women’s access to education, rights, freedoms and autonomy. Women are banned from public spaces, including government buildings, parks and sports clubs, and are stripped of their economic independence.
On 4 February this year, Taliban authorities raided Begum’s compound in Kabul, temporarily closing the radio station down.
That Radio Begum is able to continue and complement its activities through the internet-based Begum Academy and Begum Television, which beams its programs into Afghanistan out of France, says much about the brave women behind the microphones and Begum’s founder, Hamida Aman. Courage is essential.
On 4 February this year, Taliban authorities raided Begum’s compound in Kabul, temporarily closing the radio station down. In a statement on the social media site X, the Taliban information ministry said the station had been suspended because of “multiple violations” and for “providing materials and programs to a TV station based abroad”. That station was Begum’s own television station in Paris. Two male employees were arrested in the raid.
The radio station was given permission to resume broadcasting later that month but access was only made possible three weeks after that approval when the Taliban's General Directorate of Intelligence finally lifted the seals placed on the premises. The two staff members remained in detention and authorities demanded that any resumption of radio broadcasts adhere to strict conditions including a formal ban on producing any television content.
Despite the psychological trauma and mistrust created by the raid, the women of Begum prevailed. Operating Begum TV from France meant that it remained beyond the reach of local repression. The raid on Radio Begum highlighted the vulnerability of the Begum concept. As a result, Begum TV has in their own words “become a cornerstone of our mission and a vital safeguard of resilience in the face of mounting threats to Afghan media”. Of note, Reporters Without Borders this year found that more than two-thirds of the 12,000 journalists in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban takeover have left the profession. Eight out of every ten women journalists have had to stop working. In the annual ranking of press freedom, Afghanistan sits near the bottom, just above Iran, Syria, China, North Korea and Eritrea.
Amid the perils and restrictions, Radio Begum continues to offer a daily program of six hours of radio classes in Dari and Pashto languages plus other programs designed to give Afghan women a voice, all produced by the female Afghan team. Begum TV broadcasts 24/7 into Afghanistan via satellite with video courses covering the entire Afghan school curriculum from years 7 to 12 in both Dari and Pashto.
The importance of girls being able to access Begum's educational resources cannot be overstated.
Complementing the educational broadcasts is the Begum Academy, a free digital platform covering the Afghan secondary school curriculum. Since March, the platform has also been available through a mobile app designed to make the content accessible offline. Begum Academy is the first educational platform in Afghanistan that combines all the subjects of Grades 7 to 12 in an audio-visual format where students can learn, interact, and evaluate their skill levels.
The importance of girls being able to access Begum's educational resources cannot be overstated. The latest statistics from UN Women show that as of April 2023, 80 per cent of school-aged girls and young women were not in school.
But there is some light. One of Begum’s detained employees was released on 14 July. There is hope that the second staff member will be freed next month. And earlier in July, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and the chief justice of the Taliban, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, on charges of committing crimes against humanity by persecuting women and girls on the grounds of gender.
Meanwhile, we wait to see how far Australia’s “unprecedented action” to hold Afghanistan to account under international law for the treatment of women and girls can proceed. Last September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Australia joined Germany, Canada and the Netherlands in announcing its intent to commence proceedings against Afghanistan for violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In accordance with the requirements of the convention, the countries have started the preliminary steps in the dispute resolution process. The first precondition requires disputing parties to attempt to settle the dispute by way of negotiation. Should the negotiations or attempts to negotiate fail, subsequent steps include arbitration. Only after these preliminary steps have been taken is it possible for a disputing State to refer the dispute to the International Court of Justice.
As the brave women of Begum continue their essential work, there is a ray of hope that these international efforts, however cumbersome, protracted and imperfect, might narrow the gap between the daily reality and the humanitarian ideal of Afghanistan’s women and girls.
