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: 59.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781408783641

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

Zahra Joya, Amie Ferris-Rotman

$59.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

Robinson
03 November 2026

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

When the Taliban first ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, Zahra Joya disguised herself as a boy simply to attend school. After the US-led invasion, her world transformed. Education, opportunity and freedom flourished. Like many Afghans, Zahra dared to believe in a future. She became a journalist and established her own media company to tell the stories of Afghan women.

Then, in 2021, the Taliban returned. Decades of hard-won progress vanished overnight. Women were erased from public life once again, and the promises made by the West collapsed into silence.

The Vanishing Girl of Kabul is Zahra's powerful story of survival, resistance and betrayal. Co-written with award-winning journalist Amie Ferris-Rotman, a longtime friend of both Zahra and Afghanistan, the book blends the intimacy of memoir with the urgency of investigative reporting. The Vanishing Girl of Kabul exposes the brutal realities of gender-based oppression - not only in Afghanistan, but around the world.

Now living in exile in London, Zahra refuses to be silent. This book is her clarion call, a warning to a world too willing to look away.

By: Zahra Joya
With: Amie Ferris-Rotman
Imprint: Robinson
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 22mm
ISBN: 9781408783641
ISBN 10: 1408783649
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 03 November 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
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.