Fariba Housaini graduated from Asian University for Women in Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) with minors in Development studies and Asian Studies. Upon her graduation in 2016, she completed a one-year fellowship with Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) Employee, in Alternative Livelihood Programs Directorate at Ministry of Counter Narcotics, Kabul, Afghanistan. She started her career in journalism after attending Sahar Speaks a training and mentoring program for Afghan female reporters. As a freelance journalist, she publishes featured stories in prestigious international media. One of her stories on reverse culture shock experience among Afghan students who studied abroad has been published in The Huffington Post. Her second story about the issue of virginity testing in Afghanistan is published in The Guardian. She believes the lack of women’s representation in social and political activities have caused biased social policies which are ordered on the base of male priorities rather than female priorities. There should be a reform in the social policies, rule and laws which are based on male priorities. The reform will only happen through the high percentage of women’s representation in the social, economic and political activities by increasing the number of women reporters who could contribute to better coverage of women, drawing attention to women’s views and highlighting the issues related to gender equality. Therefore, she strongly believes in the power of storytelling as it is a great opportunity to raise our voices especially for many Afghan women reporters/story tellers who could bring a positive change in a society where injustice have been institutionalized and structured.
