Bridging the gap: Using OSINT to report on women and girls in Afghanistan

Journalists face immense challenges reporting on women’s rights inside Afghanistan. But newsrooms and researchers are leveraging open source techniques to investigate topics such as gender-based violence – shining a light on a range of underreported issues.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, women’s rights have been systematically dismantled. Women and girls have been barred from education, most employment, and public spaces, and have been restricted from traveling. 

In our report marking the third anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover, Afghan Witness highlighted how women and girls have been “systematically erased” from public life. A culture of impunity means that widespread cases of gender-based violence and abuse are rarely reported and even more rarely investigated. 

The Taliban’s Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law mandates full-body and facial covering for women with hijab, forbids people to look at the faces or bodies of unrelated individuals of the opposite gender, bans women’s voices from being heard outside the home, and prohibits women from traveling without a mahram (male guardian).

Meanwhile, press freedom and access to information has also been severely curtailed, with widespread self-censorship among media operating in the country, a ban on criticism of Taliban officials, laws and policies, and the repression of journalists and activists. Security considerations make on-the-ground reporting difficult, while reliable, independent data is inaccessible or lacking.

In such a context, traditional journalism faces immense obstacles. The usage of open source intelligence (OSINT) helps bridge this gap by leveraging social media, satellite imagery, user-generated video and photo to cross-reference claims and reports — allowing for collaboration between journalists and analysts to investigate stories and verify information in conjunction with, or even in the absence of, on-the-ground reporting.

Afghan Witness has supported multiple projects, organisations and individuals seeking to utilise OSINT techniques in order to shed light on the situation of women in Afghanistan.

Commenting on the project’s partnerships so far, Olivia Pirie-Griffiths, Director of Impact and Engagement at Afghan Witness, said: 

Hasht-e Subh Daily — Women’s prisons map

Most cases of women’s arrests and imprisonment in Afghanistan have remained hidden from the public. With support from Afghan Witness, the independent newspaper Hasht-e Subh Daily has sought to address this information gap by developing a map detailing the locations of the Taliban’s women’s prisons in Afghanistan. The map was built by collecting contributions from journalists, local sources, Taliban prison officials, female prisoners, and their relatives. It includes information on prison locations, inmate numbers, charges, and family access. 

The newspaper has also conducted extensive interviews with former incarcerated Afghan women, reporting on the conditions and rife abuse within those prisons.

Zan Times — Public Afghan Women Archive

With support from Afghan Witness, the female-led newsroom Zan Times has been using investigative reporting and open source techniques to develop a map documenting the killings, disappearances and arrests of “public” women – defined as those working or studying outside the home, or those who have protested or spoken out against the Taliban. Most such cases go unreported in Afghanistan.

A team of 10 investigators worked on the cases over a six-month period, with incidents dating back to September 2021. Zan Times used a combination of open source techniques and in-depth investigative journalism to verify cases, gathering key details about the killing and detention of the women and the likely perpetrators, as well as the current status of the cases. As of today, they have mapped 14 killings, 34 arrests and one disappearance. 

Noor Fellowship

Afghan Witness organised the Noor Fellowship (“Noor” or “نور”, meaning “light”), a four-month online program providing mentoring in open-source intelligence, verification, fact-checking and network building to selected journalists, researchers, advocates, and human rights reporters working on Afghanistan. Two of the fellows produced original research explicitly focused on exploring women’s rights:

Shahrbanu Haidari’s research titled “Digital Resistance: women’s activism under Taliban rule” investigated digital platforms, such as X  and Instagram, where women advocate for their rights, share experiences, and organise across borders. She highlighted the challenges activists face, including limited internet access, trauma, online abuse and security concerns under Taliban control. Her study also showed how diaspora activists play a key role in amplifying the voices of women still in Afghanistan, creating a bridge for global engagement.

Humayoon’s research, titled “Women’s Visibility in Afghan Media Before and After the Taliban Takeover in August 2021”, explored how the post-2001 period saw unprecedented female participation in Afghanistan’s media, a trend that was reversed in 2021. Since then, female journalists have faced censorship, restrictions, job losses, and threats, which have significantly reduced their presence. Humayoon highlighted the effects of these restrictions on the wider media landscape, calling for measures to preserve media freedom and ensure the continued inclusion of women in Afghan journalism.

Digital security

In an environment where freedom is restricted to such an extent, social media and other digital forms of communication become crucial. Many Afghan girls and women, barred from secondary schools and universities, are continuing their education through online classes and courses. Meanwhile, much activism, networking and information sharing often takes place in closed messenger groups. 

This means that their digital security and privacy are often at risk, however, and individuals can be identified based on their online activities, communications, or other digital footprints.

In order to bridge this gap, Afghan Witness is conducting digital security and broader safety training sessions with various Afghan women’s organisations, with the aim of building awareness and providing the tools to improve their safety. We have also developed a comprehensive digital security guide in Dari and Pashto, explaining how to identify security risks, secure apps, devices, and social media, browse the web privately, and take steps to ensure one’s physical security.