First women’s magazine hit the street
KABUL, (AFP) – Afghanistan’s first national women’s magazine appeared on Saturday in kiosks across the country to mark International Women’s Day.
Produced by the Afghan non-government organisation DHSA, the magazine takes its name from the Dari language word for rose, “Morsal.”
The magazine, is a 36-page, black and white journal of practical information in the local Pashtu and Dari languages to be produced weekly. Some 17,000 copies are to be distributed across 29 of Afghanistan’s 31 provinces.
Stories on health, education and the everyday lives of women in the war-ravaged country will feature prominently in the magazine, as will pictorial essays designed to appeal to the 85 percent of Afghan women unable to read or write.
Female residents of Kabul have five women’s magazines to choose from already, but Morsal is different, its publishers say.
“The originality of Morsal is its distribution on a national level. This magazine is not aimed only at educated readers who live in Kabul, but all Afghan women, of whom 85 percent are illiterate,” DHSA director Shahir Zahine said.
“Since the collapse of the Taliban, women have new access to education,” Zahine added. “Some can be seen in administrations and in bazaars, they can enjoy certain freedoms.
“But these encouraging signs must not hide the profound reality of the Afghan woman. Almost everywhere in the country, women are still confined to the home, with no possibility of educating themselves or opening themselves up to the world.”
Morsal will initially be distributed as a free supplement to the weekly “Killid,” or “the key.”
“Thus we will reach women through their men, who are generally the only ones who visit bazaars and buy papers. In this way, the title will be introduced into the families by the fathers, husbands or brothers,” Zahine said.
Killid, in production since last March by the same NGO, is a general information magazine carrying a four-page regional-specific supplement for the central, eastern and northern regions.
