When Afghan journalist Khadija Haidary fled the Taliban, she never imagined that her writing would reach readers thousands of miles away in China. Yet it did — prompting small but meaningful acts of support that empowered her to move forward amid her uncertain situation. In China, where civil society is tightly regulated and spontaneous cross-border humanitarian support is rare, her letters, which evolved into a book titled “A Letter from an Afghan Woman,” sparked an unexpected cross-border solidarity with the oppressed women from far away. Rather than forming a visible movement, these responses took shape as quiet, individual acts, revealing how solidarity adapts under constraint.
This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.
Every morning, millions across conflict zones reach for their phones. They search for news. What greets...
Transgender people in Banaras gather on March 20, 2026, to express concern over the proposed Transgender Rights Amendment Bill 2026. Image by Varanasi Queer...
After 30 years in Iran, Noorullah found himself on a bus in the Afghan city of Herat. He clutched all the documents that made up the life of his 21-year-old son, Rohullah, who was the reason his family was headed back to Kabul for the first time in decades.
Rohullah was killed instantly when a missile struck the Tehran apartment complex he had been staying in: “My son was martyred,” Noorullah said.
The brutal reality of wars unfolding in our world, such as the current war in Ukraine, the Iran-Israel-US conflict, or the devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, reveals that war is never just fought on battlefields. It is fought on every road, in every schoolyard, and in every home.
“In most of these markets people also say they pay more attention to creators and influencers than to mainstream news brands (or their journalists) when using social media.” — Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report