Tickets: Free for Hearth members / £15 non-members / £25 Ticket + Book / £10 Zoom Admission
About The Event
Join us for an intimate conversation between author and leading human rights journalist, Zahra Joya, and Amie Ferris-Rotman, to discuss Zahra’s debut memoir The Vanishing Girl of Kabul.
As a young girl in Afghanistan, Zahra disguised herself as a boy just to be able to go to school. Under US occupation, opportunity and freedom flourished and she was able to study law and become a journalist, setting up her own media company. There was hope and belief in a future. But when the Taliban reclaimed power in 2021, decades of progress vanished overnight — and the silencing of women began. The promises of the West were broken. This book tells of this great betrayal, of having the courage to speak out and of the ongoing fight for rights across the world.
Now living in exile in London, Zahra refuses to stay silent. The Vanishing Girl of Kabul is not only an eye-opening personal account, but her story becomes a rallying cry for women everywhere whose rights are stripped away. From Afghan girls forbidden to go to school, to women losing control over their bodies, Zahra exposes how the same battle for equality rages on every continent. It is a searing indictment of gender apartheid that is being allowed to continue and a testament to the power of hope, and how we must heed the voices of those who resist.
In August 2026, it will be 5 years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and in November 2026, it will be 25years since the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan.
Please note this event is open to everyone.
📸 Event Photography: We may take photos or short videos during the event to celebrate our community and for promotional use. We’ll aim to give notice beforehand. If you’d rather not appear in any content, please feel free to let the photographer or content creator know directly.otos and videos may be captured for promotional use.
Zahra Joya
Journalist & Author
Zahra Joya is a leading human rights journalist living in exile in London. She was airlifted out of Kabul in the chaotic days of the Taliban's takeover of the country, in August 2021. A year earlier, Joya founded Rukhshana Media, Afghanistan's first news agency dedicated to the stories of women - an online news source for Afghan woman. She is a former Time Magazine Woman of the Year and has won awards and accolades across the world including the Marie Colvin Award, the Gates Foundation Change Maker and CNN Champion for Change she was named one of BBC's 100 Women in 2022.
Amie Ferris-Rotman
Journalist & Author
Amie Ferris-Rotman is a British-American journalist based in London. She is currently global news editor at New Lines Magazine. She has reported on Afghan refugees and the war in Ukraine for TIME magazine and spent almost a decade in Russia and the former Soviet space, recently as Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post. Between Russia tours, she was Reuters senior correspondent in Afghanistan. She has held posts with Foreign Policy and The Wall Street Journal, and has also reported for The Atlantic, Politico, The Guardian, Haaretz and more. She was a 2014 John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University and is the founder of Sahar Speaks, a program offering training and publishing opportunities for Afghan female journalists. This won her the British Press Award for Innovation in 2016. Amie holds a bachelor and Masters degree in Russian Studies from University College London. She sits on the board of trustees at Rukhshana Media.
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