Shabnam Bayani

Shabnam Bayani: An International Woman Journalist from Afghanistan

Shabnam Bayani, a journalist and human rights activist, was born in 1990 in Parwan province, Afghanistan, into a small merchant family. She was the first member of the family to enter the media field.
Shabnam migrated to Uzbekistan with her family when she was three years old. She returned to Afghanistan in 2012, after graduating from her school in Tashkent. Then, she was admitted to a private university in Kabul and began studying law.

In 2016, Shabnam Bayani went to the United Arab Emirates and one year later in 2017, she started working with Al-Arabiya Farsi International Media. As the headquarters of this media outlet were in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 2016 to 2023, Shabnam lived in this city during those years until she relocated to Saudi Arabia in 2023.

As an Afghan journalist, Shabnam has written hundreds of reports for Al-Arabiya Farsi about Afghanistan, mainly focusing on women's issues in the country. Additionally, since 2021, she has been invited to several programs to speak about human rights situations in Afghanistan, the future of media, women's rights, and freedom of expression in the country, especially after the Taliban takeover.

She aims to highlight more women's rights issues in her reports so that the whole world becomes aware of what is happening in this country. She adds, "In the past two years, women and girls in Afghanistan, who comprise half of the country's population, have been deprived of their most basic rights, which are simply working and education. Additionally, women are at risk of arbitrary arrests, sexual assault, and forced marriages."

Furthermore, Shabnam Bayani is considered an essential collaborator in coordinating and inviting prominent Afghan public figures and women's rights activists to participate in Al-Arabiya Farsi programs. She has invited personalities such as Ahmad Massoud, Rahmatullah Nabil, and Mahboubeh Seraj to Al-Arabiya Farsi programs.

Shabnam Bayani, a journalist and human rights activist supporting women's rights in Afghanistan, has recently joined the "Women's Post Movement" to achieve this goal. She emphasizes the importance of everyone coming together and raising their voices in unison to ensure women attain their fundamental rights.

"Women's Post Movement" aims not only to support women in Afghanistan but also to garner international support from various countries, institutions, and people worldwide. So far, the movement has been successful, with nearly 200,000 social media followers and over 90 successful posts continuing its activities.