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"The Taliban are doing everything to gag journalists": the testimony of the great reporter Margaux Benn

2023-03-27T16:18:30.880Z


FIGARO LIVE - Guest of "Buzz TV", the journalist from Figaro, Margaux Benn, winner of the Albert-Londres prize, is making an uplifting documentary for LCP on the condition of Afghan women.


At 34, Margaux Benn is already a confirmed great reporter.

Laureate of the Bayeux Prize for war correspondents, this journalist from Le

Figaro

received the very prestigious Albert Londres Prize for the written press at the end of last year for her reports at the heart of the war in Ukraine.

Invited on the set of "Buzz TV", she presents an edifying documentary devoted, this time, to Afghan women, "How beautiful you are: being 20 years old in Taliban country" and which will be broadcast on Tuesday March 28 at 8:30 p.m. on the LCP channel. .

A moving subject that follows the daily life of two young women, Sofia and Niguina, in a country where their rights hardly exist anymore.

"

In Afghanistan, women can no longer show that they are beautiful

", assures Margaux Benn.

"

Their female bodies have been erased from the public square and, if they are not fully covered, they are threatened or even abused by the Taliban who patrol all the cities”

 .

Deprived of access to the job market, these women hardly exist socially anymore.

The very fact of begging in the street is also punishable by law.

Read also Afghanistan, the “most repressive” country for women, denounces the United Nations

Through Sofia and Niguina (27 and 24 years old), two beautician friends, Margaux Benn - and her co-director Solène Chalvon-Fioriti - want to show the daily life of freedom-loving Afghan women: "Sofia and Niguina represent many Afghan women

,

explains- she.

However, nothing predestined them to be feminist cantors.

They walk around with their faces uncovered in a carnival and take risks that put them in immense danger because the Taliban are prowling everywhere!

They continue to go to college, they try to pass the driving license in secret... They try by, their little rebellions, to survive and find their freedom in this public space

.

»

After having worked and lived in Kabul for a long time, Margaux Benn takes a hard look at the hold of the Taliban on the press and information in general in a country which now almost systematically refuses work visas to foreign journalists, who have been forced to work for neighboring countries: "

The Taliban are doing everything to hinder the work of journalists

," she says.

As a foreign journalist, you don't risk much except being expelled from the country.

But Afghan journalists can no longer work because freedom of the press is totally muzzled.

If they do, it is their family who can pay the consequences behind

...”

“Winning the Albert-Londres prize shows that I was right to take risks”

Margaux Benn

Winner of the prestigious Albert-Londres prize for the written press last year for her reports in Ukraine, Margaux Benn says she is "

surprised

" to have received it: "It

does not crown a career, because I only have 34 years old, but instead comes to encourage me to do even more.

This tells me that I was right to take risks

.

“If she wants to continue on this path, she would however like this type of report to be seen by as many people as possible, especially on streaming platforms like Netflix:”

It would be interesting if only for the number of people who could be affected.

It's always a little frustrating to make a documentary that is only visible in France or in French.

These platforms allow everyone to see these documentaries at any time and it democratizes access

.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-03-27

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