:Farahnaz Forotan

In 1996, when Farahnaz was three and the Taliban arrived in her home town, Kabul, she and her family migrated to Iran due to the civil war in Afghanistan. Farahnaz and her sisters were denied an education by the authorities due to their refugee status. She was eventually able to continue school from grades one through four, in a private Afghan school with very limited resources. At first, students sat on the floor because there were no tables or chairs.{{cite web |last1=Forotan |first1=Farahnaz |title=How will the Victims of War be Represented in Afghanistan's Peace Negotiations? |url=https://femena.net/analysis-reports/victims-of-war-and-afghan-peace |website=Femena 2021 |access-date=April 7, 2021}}

Farahnaz Forotan worked at three of the main television broadcasting stations in Afghanistan between 2012 and 2020, including Ariana Television Network.{{cite web|last1=Omid|first1=Jawid|title=Tale of an Afghan female journalist|url=http://english.sina.com/world/2015/0126/777227.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715203710/http://english.sina.com/world/2015/0126/777227.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2019-07-15|access-date=March 27, 2015|website=english.sina.com|publisher=English Sina}} She has hosted major talk shows including Purso Pal for TOLOnews and Goft-i Go-i Wehza (Special talk) and the weekly program Kabul Debate for 1TV.{{cite web |title=Leading the Charge with Farahnaz Forotan |url=https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Charge-Farahnaz-Forotan/dp/B08KYWLY81 |website=Afghanistan After America |date=October 14, 2020 |access-date=February 28, 2021|quote="At only 28, Farahnaz Forotan has worked at three of Afghanistan’s largest television broadcasters since 2012, hosting flagship talk shows at two of them, including 1TV’s hugely popular weekly program, Kabul Debate, which she's headed since 2019."}}{{cite web |title=PURSO PAL: Saikal Discusses UNSC Delegation's Visit To Kabul |url=https://www.golectures.com/index.php?go=search&yti=koW5tpCLFB0 |website=GoLectures |access-date=February 28, 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Farahnaz has traveled throughout the country and abroad to report on Afghanistan-related stories, including reporting from the Sangin District of Helmand when it was a dangerous war zone held by the Taliban. Her courage was commended by the team's leader, Bismillah Mohammadi, after he unsuccessfully ordered her to stay behind.{{cite web |last1=Walsh |first1=Elizabeth |title=Afghan Women Write New Narratives About Themselves, With Courage |url=https://www.passblue.com/2017/10/24/afghan-women-write-new-narratives-about-themselves-with-courage/ |website=PassBlue: Independent Coverage of the UN |access-date=February 28, 2021|date=October 24, 2017}}

She rose to prominence with an investigative documentary on the lives of Taliban prisoners, which dissected their thought-process and rationale for targeting not only Afghan and international forces, but also the general public in Afghanistan.{{cite web|last1=احمدیار|first1=نجیب الله -|title=چرا زنان افغان با هویت مستعار در فیسبوک می آیند؟|url=http://www.darivoa.com/a/afghanisntan-women-social-media/2864075.html|access-date=October 1, 2016|publisher=واشنگتن}}

As of 2019, Farahnaz was a student at a private university in Kabul as well as a practising journalist. In 2019 and 2020, Farahnaz conducted a social media campaign and travelled the country collecting testimonies from women, in an attempt to prevent the Taliban from using the Afghan peace process to roll back freedoms for women that had been acquired since the fall of the Taliban.{{cite news |last1=Kermani |first1=Secunder |title=Taliban peace talks: What to expect from the new round? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54016760 |access-date=February 13, 2021 |work=BBC News |date=September 7, 2020}}{{cite news |title=Afghan women go online to set #myredline for peace |url=http://archives.etypeservices.com/Barbados1/Magazine272042/Publication/Magazine272042.pdf |access-date=February 28, 2021 |work=The Barbados Advocate |date=April 22, 2019 |page=13 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite news |last1=Najibullah |first1=Farangis |title=Afghan Women Drawing #MyRedLine For Peace With The Taliban |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/myredline-the-afghan-women-who-won-t-accept-taliban-peace-at-any-cost/29972913.html |work=RadioFreeEurope|date= May 30, 2019 |access-date=February 28, 2021}} The testimonies were used to lobby Afghan leaders, foreign diplomats and civil society groups, and Farahnaz's campaign had the backing of UN Women Afghanistan.{{cite web |title=Once is more than enough #MyRedLine |date=March 20, 2019 |url=https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2019/03/once-is-more-than-enough |website=UN Women |access-date=February 28, 2021}} In 2019, The New York Times reported that her social media campaign, known as #myredline, "implores women to stand up for their rights."{{cite news |last1=Zucchino |first1=David |last2=Faizi |first2=Fatima |title=In Kabul's Liberating Cafes, 'Women Make the Culture Here, Not Men' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/world/asia/afghanistan-kabul-women-cafes.html |access-date=February 13, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=May 25, 2019}} On April 4, 2019, Reuters reported she "launched the movement by declaring that her pen, symbolic of her profession, was her red line."{{cite news |last1=Hakimi |first1=Orooj |title=Women singers test limits, signal Afghanistan's changing times |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-women-idUSKCN1RG0SH |access-date=February 13, 2021 |work=Reuters |date=April 4, 2019}} On April 21, 2019, Farahnaz told AFP that President Ashraf Ghani had tweeted that women's rights were a "red line" in the peace process.{{cite news |title=Cyclist Kobra Salim takes part in #MyRedLine campaign |url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/culture-and-society/210419/cyclist-kobra-salim-takes-part-in-myredline-campaign.html |access-date=February 13, 2021 |work=Deccan Chronicle |agency=AFP |date=April 21, 2019}}

She has been inspired by the work of other women such as Shakila Ibrahimkhail.{{cite web |last1=Billing |first1=Lynzy |title=Afghan Female Journalists Fight for Their Place In the Newsroom |url=https://zora.medium.com/afghan-female-journalists-fight-for-their-place-in-the-newsroom-70b791b69b09 |website=ZORA|date=January 23, 2020 |access-date=February 28, 2021}} On July 24, 2018 Farahnaz was one of thirteen Afghan women leaders who met with Canadian Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef to discuss challenges facing Afghan women.{{cite web |title="This is a new Afghanistan": Women won't be silenced |url=https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/stories-histoires/2018/afghanistan_gender_equality-afghanistan_egalite_sexes.aspx?lang=eng |website=Government of Canada|date=October 29, 2019 |access-date=February 28, 2021}}

In 2019 she and Ferdous Samim co-founded the Taak Foundation to raise awareness of fundamental rights through public education and engagement.{{cite web |title=Our Civic Values |url=https://taakinc.co/firm/values/civic/ |website=Taak Inc. |access-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-date=June 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628214350/https://taakinc.co/firm/values/civic/ |url-status=dead }}

On November 9, 2020, Farahnaz received a call from the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, which informed her that according to foreign intelligence services, she was on the Taliban's blacklist of people, that The New York Times described as a "hit list," which forced her to take refuge in Paris, France.{{Cite news|last=Nossiter|first=Adam|date=January 17, 2021|title='There Is No Safe Area': In Kabul, Fear Has Taken Over|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/world/asia/afghanistan-kabul-taliban-violence.html|access-date=February 13, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=January 24, 2021|title=Afghanistan: Journalists, Reporters Displaced by Surge of Targeted Assassinations, Killings|url=https://www.khaama.com/afghanistan-journalists-reporters-displaced-by-surge-of-targeted-assassinations-killings-4455544/|access-date=February 13, 2021|website=The Khaama Press News Agency|language=en-US}}

Targeted killings of journalists, activists, and prominent women in other fields have surged since the February 2020 peace agreement negotiated between the Taliban and the United States under former president Donald Trump.{{cite news |last1=Ghazi |first1=Zabihullah |last2=Gibbons-Neff |first2=Thomas |title=Three Women Working for a News Outlet Are Gunned Down in Afghanistan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/world/asia/afghanistan-women-journalists-killed.html|access-date=March 3, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=March 2, 2021}}

Targeted killings in December 2020 included journalists Malalai Maiwand of Enikass Radio and TV and Rahmatullah Nikzad, chief of the Ghazni Journalists' Union.{{cite news |last1= Abed |first1=Fahim |last2=Gibbons-Neff |first2=Thomas |title=Targeted Killings Are Terrorizing Afghans. And No One Is Claiming Them |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/world/asia/afghanistan-targeted-killings.html |access-date=March 3, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date= January 2, 2021}} An attack on March 2, 2021 killed Mursal Hakimi, Sadia Shanat, and Shanaz Raofi of Enikass Radio and TV.

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• {{cite web |last1=Shuaib |first1=Pary |title=Farahnaz Forotan: I will never give up on Afghanistan |date=April 16, 2017 |url=https://www.freewomenwriters.org/2017/04/16/farahnaz-forotan-afghanistan-woman-journalist/ |website=Free Women Writers |access-date=February 28, 2021 |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306073602/https://www.freewomenwriters.org/2017/04/16/farahnaz-forotan-afghanistan-woman-journalist/ |url-status=dead }}
• [https://twitter.com/FarahnazForotan Farahnaz Forotan] on Twitter

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Category:Living people

Category:1992 births

Category:Afghan women journalists

Category:Afghan journalists

Category:Afghan women activists

Category:Afghan activists

Category:Afghan Tajik people

Category:Tajik women

Category:Tajik journalists

Category:Journalists from Kabul