
Mariam Meetra was born in Afghanistan in 1992. She studied mass communication and journalism in Kabul and social sciences at Humboldt University in Berlin. Meetra has published articles and reports about the integration and empowerment of migrant women, and her poems have been published in several anthologies in Germany. Meetra’s new collection of poems with German translations will be published this year by Wallstein-Verlag.
Topic: Gender Activism and Social Media in Afghanistan
Following the collapse of the Republic of Afghanistan, women demonstrated against the Taliban and paraded through the streets. The Taliban quashed the protests, rendering it genuinely impossible to be sustained in the streets and public areas. Nevertheless, women’s demonstrations persisted in alternative ways, with female activists maintaining their protests in cyberspace by sharing images, videos, and written messages. During the last four years, Women have demonstrated their understanding of social media’s role in influencing public opinion in their struggle and have utilized online platforms to convey their demands and messages globally. Social networks can be viewed as a complicated landscape of human interactions that have arisen in contemporary times and among social advocates. A key element of both the traditional and digital public sphere is the rise of public discussions among individuals. Establishing a discursive space is fundamental to communication studies in the online public sphere. Social media platforms have been considered influential in contemporary social movements, allowing activists to articulate their interests, voice their grievances, and propose solutions.
This paper studies the role and impact of digital platforms on women’s protests in the time following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The research aims to analyze the role of social media in reflecting the women’s marches in Afghanistan. The study collects data through interviews with activists, posts and hashtags with a specific focus on two major social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter.