Events

Zahra Joya is a leading human rights journalist living in exile in London. She was airlifted out of Kabul in the chaotic days of the Taliban’s takeover of the country, in August 2021. A year earlier, Joya founded Rukhshana Media, Afghanistan’s first news agency dedicated to the stories of women – an online news source for Afghan woman. She is a former Time Magazine Woman of the Year and has won awards and accolades across the world including the Marie Colvin Award, the Gates Foundation Change Maker and CNN Champion for Change; she was named one of BBCs 100 Women in 2022.

As a young girl in Afghanistan, Zahra disguised herself as a boy just to be able to go to school. Under US occupation, opportunity and freedom flourished and she was able to study law and become a journalist, setting up her own media company. There was hope and belief in a future. But when the Taliban reclaimed power in 2021, decades of progress vanished overnight – and the silencing of women began.

The promises of the West were broken. This book tells of this great betrayal, of having the courage to speak out and of the ongoing fight for rights across the world.

Now living in exile in London, Zahra refuses to stay silent. The Vanishing Girl of Kabul is not only an eye-opening personal account, but her story becomes a rallying cry for women everywhere whose rights are stripped away.

From Afghan girls forbidden to go to school, to women losing control over their bodies, Zahra exposes how the same battle for equality rages on every continent. It is a searing indictment of gender apartheid that is being

allowed to continue and a testament to the power of hope, and how we must heed the voices of those who resist.

In August 2026, it will be 5 years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and in November 2026, it will be 25 years since the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan.

Shantel Edwards works for Writing West Midlands, programming the Birmingham Literature Festival which takes place in October each year. She is a proud Brummie and is passionate about platforming voices, and stories, from the region.