this year the committee to protect journalists warned of eroding press freedoms under the taliban including last years order that female journalists must wear hijabs while on screen according to the united nations high commissioner for refugees unhcr pakistan currently hosts more than 14 million registered afghans who have been forced to flee their homes over the years of war unhcr has announced that processing asylum cases for afghans in pakistan may take time due to the excessive number of applicants during a protest in pakistan on april 27 a group of about 60 journalists from afghanistan called for support from the international community and asked that their asylum cases be followed up and accelerated after the protest sayedzada said a young woman who had fled the country on her own asked if she could stay with sayedzada and her family it broke my heart i could not help her as we are already four people trying to make the ends meet until we are picked by a safe country that lets us in she told abc news sayedzada who worked in afghanistan with television channel setareye sobh and radio program zemzemeh is a single mother of a 13yearold boy she crossed the afghanistanpakistan border with her son her elderly mother and one of her brothers she said her brother who isnt a journalist has also been arrested and tortured by the taliban several times providing medical records to abc news for review both my brother and i received death threats from the taliban many times and had to leave afghanistan as soon as possible sayedzada said we had no choice but to leave my father and other family members back home a taliban fighter stands guard as people walk through the old market in the city of kabul afghanistan on may 3 2022 ebrahim norooziap at least 50 journalists and media workers in afghanistan have been detained briefly or arrested by police or the istikhbarat the taliban intelligence agency since the taliban returned to power rsf said in early february these arrests which are often accompanied by violence have lasted from several hours to nearly a week they usually occur when journalists are covering street demonstrations by women in the capital kabul rsf wrote adding that the istikhbarat and the talibans ministry for promoting virtue and suppressing vice are directly implicated in this harassment despite the dangers of speaking up sayedzada said her colleagues both in afghanistan and pakistan keep reporting on the dire situation of living under the taliban after our gathering in pakistan and asking for the acceleration of processing our asylum cases i received a phone call from a taliban member who told me if i keep talking to the media they would hang me from the gates of the town so other journalists take a lesson sayedzada told abc news but i am not going to stop speaking up even if i am sometimes scared afghan journalists in pakistan courtesy fawzia saidzada being heartbroken by