The US must honor its promises to Afghanistan’s women journalists

Almost two years after American soldiers swiftly packed and left the nation’s longest-running war in Afghanistan, the Taliban are still targeting tens of thousands of Afghans left behind. Among them are Afghan women journalists.
It has never been particularly safe to be an Afghan women journalist. Even before the Taliban assumed power, their fighters targeted these women. In 2021, Taliban fighters shot and killed three young women journalists in Jalalabad and used explosives to kill two others in 2020. Now, the Taliban have denied women journalists the ability to work freely, and they continue to harass and intimidate female journalists. In March 2022, 8 in 10 Afghan women journalists reported physical abuse and threats from the Taliban.
These women cannot safely return to Afghanistan. Yet, living in Pakistan under current conditions is unsustainable. Afghans who arrived in Pakistan after 2017 have no protection — the Pakistani government refuses to register them or consider them refugees. Many Afghan women journalists arrived on short-term visas that have expired, and they cannot afford to renew them. Without visas and with no way to get refugee status, humanitarian organizations cannot assist them, and they are at risk of deportation.
The list of hardships faced by Afghan women journalists in Pakistan is long. The Pakistani government needs to register these Afghans and recognize them for what they are, refugees who have fled the Taliban and who cannot safely return home. Pakistan needs to allow these women to work and their children to go to school and assure them that they will not be deported.
But for those with P-2 resettlement cases, there is a path to an even more secure future. The U.S. government must work with their Pakistani counterparts to get these women to the United States: a country that prides itself on valuing a free press.
Devon Cone is the senior advocate for women and girls at Refugees International. She recently traveled to Pakistan to speak with Afghan women and published a report, “‘They Left us Without Any Support:’ Afghans in Pakistan Waiting for Solutions.