14 Facts About Farahnaz Forotan

Farahnaz Forotan is an Afghan journalist and women's rights activist.

Farahnaz Forotan moved to Iran together with her family during the Mujahideen regime.

In 1996, when Farahnaz Forotan 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 Forotan was eventually able to continue school from grades one through four, in a private Afghan school with very limited resources.

Farahnaz Forotan worked at three of the main television broadcasting stations in Afghanistan between 2012 and 2020, including Ariana Television Network.

Farahnaz Forotan has hosted major talk shows including Purso Pal for TOLOnews and Goft-i Go-i Wehza and the weekly program Kabul Debate for 1TV.

Farahnaz Forotan 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.

Farahnaz Forotan's courage was commended by the team's leader, Bismillah Mohammadi, after he unsuccessfully ordered her to stay behind.

Farahnaz Forotan 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 the general public in Afghanistan.

In 2019 and 2020, Farahnaz Forotan 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.

The testimonies were used to lobby Afghan leaders, foreign diplomats and civil society groups, and Farahnaz Forotan's campaign had the backing of UN Women Afghanistan.

Farahnaz Forotan has been inspired by the work of other women such as Shakila Ibrahimkhail.

On July 24,2018 Farahnaz Forotan was one of thirteen Afghan women leaders who met with Canadian Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef to discuss challenges facing Afghan women.

On November 9,2020, Farahnaz Forotan 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.