When Zan Times closed applications for its journalism fellowship last month, the response was extraordinary: 860 applications from women across 31 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

Think about what that number means. These are women living under Taliban gender apartheid — and yet 860 of them put their names forward to become journalists. This is an act of civic resistance. They are active agents seeking to document, resist, and narrate their own reality from every corner of the country.

As Zahra Nader, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Zan Times, put it: These numbers have given me and the team huge confidence; but more than anything, they speak to the incredible bravery and resilience of Afghan women and girls. Under Taliban oppression, they continue to dream, to resist and to be part of the change. They are not giving up, and that is what inspires us.

This is precisely the kind of work HAMRAH exists to support. Organisations like Zan Times are not simply reporting on the crisis — they are building the institutional infrastructure that makes Afghan women’s voices heard, their experiences recorded, and their stories preserved. The narratives, documentation, and testimonies produced through initiatives like this fellowship are laying the foundation for any future accountability and justice process.

For policymakers and donors, this moment demands attention. Independent Afghan women’s media is a frontline accountability mechanism — and it needs sustained, principled resourcing to survive and grow.

HAMRAH Network stands with Zan Times and calls on donors and institutions to recognise and resource independent Afghan women’s journalism as the critical civil society infrastructure it is.