ISLAMABAD: An Afghan woman journalist, Farishta Sadeed, was picked up by authorities from her residence in Sector B-17 on Monday night and taken to a detention facility for deportation, her family and relatives told Dawn on Tuesday.

Ms Sadeed, who worked for Radio Bahar in the Kapisa province of Afghanistan, risks detention in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where women are not allowed to work in the public sphere.

In December last year, the interim regime had even barred NGOs from employing women.

Her family members said they had spent the entire day outside the Haji Camp — a detention facility housing Afghans on the outskirts of Islamabad — but she had not been released till midnight.

They claimed the journalist was awaiting resettlement to France and had an authorisation letter from the embassy as well. Her relatives said that the journalist did not have proper documentation, but she had to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban rose to power in 2021.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2025