The Vanishing Girl of Kabul: Betrayal, Hope and an Extraordinary Fight for Women’s Rights

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Zahra Joya Amie Ferris-Rotman

The Vanishing Girl of Kabul

Name: The Vanishing Girl of Kabul
Price: 34.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781408783634

Betrayal, Hope and an Extraordinary Fight for Women’s Rights

Zahra Joya, Amie Ferris-Rotman

$34.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

Robinson Publishing
21 July 2026

Biography; Autobiography: historical, political & military; True war & combat stories

This is this story of Zahra's life in Afghanistan and her subsequent exile. As a child, she had to dress as a boy to gain an education; later under US rule she qualified as a lawyer and then a journalist. Then, shockingly, the years of freedom and education were overturned literally overnight when the US withdrew and Kabul fell to the Taliban. Afghanistan quickly became the key battleground in the global struggle for women's equality, and as a

journalist reporting on abuses of women Zahra's life was in danger.

Beginning anew in London without most of her family,

she knows that her fight extends far beyond Afghanistan. The lessons from her story, and the stories she is made aware of every day are never more urgently needed in a world inching closer to authoritarianism -

from her compatriots banned from showing their faces in public to the lawmakers denying women bodily autonomy, to the rise of the incel movement and the spread of trad wives messaging.

Coming at a time when feminist activism is being signaled globally, when writers are speaking out against censorship and genocide and we are increasingly aware of the power of journalism to change the world, this is a story about all women and how they are treated when men are at their worst. Most importantly it is about fighting back, and having hope. It's a story about an ordinary girl who became a human rights campaigner; it stretches beyond Afghanistan to encompass injustices suffered by women across the globe, and it is a stark reminder of what it means to be betrayed - as a country, by the West, but also as a woman, by the men who rule the world.

By: Zahra Joya
With: Amie Ferris-Rotman
Imprint: Robinson Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 22mm
ISBN: 9781408783634
ISBN 10: 1408783630
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 21 July 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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.