Rukhshana Media

About Rukhshana Media

Rukhshana Media (رسانه رخشانه) is a pioneering feminist Afghan newsroom operating from exile in London. Founded in November 2020 by journalist Zahra Joya, it publishes original women-centered journalism in Dari, English and Pashto — produced by an editorial team in the United Kingdom working with anonymous contributors inside Afghanistan. It is among the earliest and most distinctive of the Afghan exile media: a newsroom built by and for Afghan women, still filing original reporting into October 2026.

About Rukhshana Media

Rukhshana Media is a women-centered newsroom with a clear editorial identity: journalism about Afghan women's lives, reported with women's perspectives at the center rather than the margins. Its founder and editor-in-chief, Zahra Joya, established the outlet in November 2020 — months before the fall of Kabul — giving it a rare continuity among exile outlets: a newsroom conceived inside Afghanistan's independent-press era that adapted to exile rather than being born from it.

The outlet's organizational footing is unusually formal for an exile newsroom. Its website footer identifies it as a registered charity (Registered Charity No. 1208006) and registered company (No. 14120163) in England and Wales, with a registered office at 1 The Sanctuary, London SW1P 3JT. That charitable structure reflects a funding model built on donations and grants rather than advertising — the economics of sustaining independent Afghan journalism from abroad.

The newsroom works on a dual model: an editorial base in London, and contributors inside Afghanistan who report anonymously for their own safety. This structure allows Rukhshana to publish original, on-the-ground reporting from inside the country — voices and stories that would otherwise go unrecorded — while its editors work beyond the reach of the restrictions imposed on journalists inside Afghanistan.

History

Rukhshana Media was founded in November 2020 by Zahra Joya, at a moment when Afghanistan still had a functioning independent press but its future was already uncertain. The outlet's feminist mission — journalism centering Afghan women — was pioneering even then; few Afghan newsrooms were built explicitly around women's perspectives.

The events of August 2021 transformed the outlet's circumstances. Like the rest of the independent Afghan press, Rukhshana could no longer operate openly inside the country. Its editorial base moved to London, while its network of contributors inside Afghanistan continued reporting under the protection of anonymity — a model that has defined its journalism ever since.

In exile the outlet formalized its institutional base, registering as a charity and company in England and Wales. That structure has supported several years of continuous publication: the site's archives carry investigative dossiers, interviews and long-form narratives alongside daily news, and its output runs in three languages with dedicated editorial streams.

As of October 2026 the newsroom is fully active. Its Pashto edition carried stories dated 13 October 2026 — the verification date itself — alongside items from throughout the first two weeks of the month, confirming daily original publishing more than five years after the outlet's founding.

News coverage and topics

Women's lives under Taliban rule form the core of Rukhshana's journalism: education bans, restrictions on work and movement, maternal health, child marriage, and the everyday strategies of survival and resistance. The outlet's reporting is concrete and human — narratives built from individual women's experiences rather than abstract policy analysis.

The site's section structure shows the range of formats: news, reports, analysis, translation, interviews, dossiers and stories. Alongside daily news, the outlet produces in-depth dossiers — multi-part investigations and explainers — and first-person narratives.

The substance of a single publishing fortnight illustrates the mix. In early October 2026 the Pashto edition carried an investigation into the deaths of mothers unable to reach functioning hospitals, a narrative marking the International Day of the Girl through families whose daughters' futures have been narrowed by restriction, and a profile of Afghanistan's first female horse rider urging readers never to surrender. News coverage in the same period included Hazara community figures campaigning for recognition of their textile designs, an artist winning an award in Canada, and UN findings on child marriage and child-rights violations. Analysis ran to a multi-part explainer on the warning signs of ethnic cleansing, framed through a former UN secretary-general's analytical criteria, and an interview with a Member of the European Parliament on the international response to the repression of women. Hard news, cultural stories and explanatory journalism share the front page — all of it filtered through the outlet's women-centered lens.

Because contributors report from inside Afghanistan, Rukhshana's coverage carries detail that exile-only outlets cannot easily obtain: provincial reporting, local voices, and documentation of conditions in places far from Kabul. The analysis and translation sections bring international frameworks — such as UN officials' criteria for identifying ethnic persecution — to Afghan readers in their own languages.

Languages and platforms

Rukhshana Media publishes in three full language editions — Dari (Persian), English and Pashto — with a language switcher linking the three. The Dari edition serves the largest Afghan readership; the Pashto edition, at rukhshana.com/ps/, carries its own daily stream of news and narratives; the English edition addresses the international community. A "support us" link alongside the switcher points to the outlet's donation channel.

The website is the primary platform, organized into clearly labeled sections for news, reports, analysis, translation, interviews, dossiers and stories. The outlet is also present on the major social platforms — Facebook, Instagram, X (@RukhshanaMedia), YouTube and Telegram — extending its reach to readers who follow Afghan news through social feeds and messaging apps.

Contact addresses include info@rukhshana.com and rukhshana.af@gmail.com. The site's mix of formats — from short news items to long narratives and multi-part dossiers — reflects a newsroom producing journalism at several depths for several audiences at once.

The charitable structure is worth noting because it explains how the journalism is sustained. Exile media rarely survive on advertising alone; Rukhshana's registration as a charity in England and Wales, with donation channels on its site, points to a funding model built on grants and reader support — the model that has kept many of the most independent Afghan outlets alive since 2021. That institutional footing, unusual among exile newsrooms, gives the outlet a stability its journalism visibly benefits from.

Location and operating status

Rukhshana Media is an exile-operated outlet with its editorial base in London, United Kingdom, registered as an English and Welsh charity and company. Its reporting network extends inside Afghanistan through anonymous contributors, allowing original on-the-ground journalism alongside the London-edited output.

As of October 2026 the outlet is fully active, publishing dated original stories daily across its language editions. For directory purposes it is profiled as an Afghan outlet — its country of service and the subject of its journalism — operating physically from the United Kingdom.

Official website and contact

The official website is https://rukhshana.com, publishing in Dari, English and Pashto. Readers can reach the outlet at info@rukhshana.com or rukhshana.af@gmail.com, follow @RukhshanaMedia on X, and find its channels on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Telegram.

WorldNM is an independent directory and does not own, operate or represent Rukhshana Media. For news tips, donations or other inquiries, please use the outlet's own channels.

Sources and last verified

This profile was verified on 13 October 2026 against rukhshana.com (checked live: Dari homepage and the full Pashto edition at /ps/, including dated stories from 1–13 October 2026, section structure, language switcher, social links and the charity/company registration footer). Founding details (November 2020, founder and editor-in-chief Zahra Joya) and the London editorial base with anonymous in-country contributors are corroborated by secondary sources. As with all directory entries, facts reflect what was publicly verifiable on the verification date.