Just until a few years ago, Zulfia did not have any option other than giving up her studies and staying at home in Kabul. Now, with the help of NAZO, a German organization she teaches young women to become independent.

21-year-old Zulfia says, “I couldn’t keep going on with my education due to financial problems, so I had to stay home. At first I was not so courageous. I had nothing to say. My social contacts were few. I was a shy girl. But I was interested in working outside my home.”

Atifa Mansori, the head of Afghanistan’s business union in Herat says: “Due to the traditional discrimination against women and the country’s current social, political, cultural and economic condition, women have less job opportunities. Few are allowed to work outside their homes.”

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Life is tough enough for women in Afghanistan, but things get more complicated when a young woman decides to take up journalism in a country riddled with conflict.

Tamana Jamily is one such young reporter-in-the-making. A student of media studies in Mazar-e-Sharif, Jamily works part-time at a radio station in her city. Supported by a scholarship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, she is now in Bonn to hone her radio skills in the Deutsche Welle. Jamily speaks to DW’s Martina Bertram about the dangerous life of a journalist in her war-ravaged country.

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