Heard It From Her, produced by Emily Thompson, is a conversation with women in the media with a story to tell. Each month, we speak with a journalist from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) or other independent media in our broadcast region to talk about her reporting, the issues she confronts, and the political, societal and cultural context in which she works.

In this episode, we spoke with Malali Bashir, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Afghan Service. Named a Twitter Power User at the 2015 Afghan Social Media Summit, Malali is one of the most visible journalists on Afghan social media, but she needed a better way to engage with Afghan women online, where an opinion expressed by a woman can result in a barrage of bullying, harassment or even blackmail.

So she created a private Facebook group for approved members called Bandar, or The Get Together, where Afghan women have been discussing everything from access to education to street harassment. Their frank discussions regularly make it out of the group and into traditional media when journalist group members report them, and people in rural Afghanistan without access to the internet can join the conversation. But there has also been a backlash in traditional media, with some men denouncing the group as “unwomanly.”

*[For more on women in media, follow Lady Liberty on Facebook and Twitter. This podcast originally appeared on RFE/RL.] 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

Photo Credit: twinsterphoto