AFGHANISTAN – As the underground church of Afghanistan faces the continued threat of attacks by the Taliban who are going door to door in search of believers, the Director of the Christian run Middle East Women’s Leadership Network is calling for the international community to stand with the many vulnerable women working in the media there.

Shirin Taber, who is passionate about giving women a voice in the Middle East, training journalists, producers, TV, radio, and social media personalities, says she’s receiving constant messages from the women she’s helped to mentor in urgent need of support.

The fall of Afghanistan has struck terror in women working in the media there as they fear attacks from the Taliban who are going door to door looking for them.

Shirin Taber director of the Middle East Women’s Leadership Network says many of the women she has personally trained in media skills are desperately calling for help to flee the country.

We reached out to over 150 Afghans for our Religion Freedom Film Trainings and for our E-Course. We offer an E-course about how to promote human rights freedom and religious empowerment. And these people are still in contact with us. Just this last ten days I heard from five women who are media producers and feel threatened because their work is out there in the public. It can be found on YouTube. It may be archived and they’re concerned that the Taliban or extremists will come after them.

This morning I got a letter from a woman who was in one of our documentary films recently and she’s very concerned. She is asking for our help to leave the country immediately. Now we’re a women’s media production network. We don’t have the kinds of connections to help people leave immediately. So we’ve had to reach out to some of our partners who work with government agencies and send them some emails and contacts. But really it’s not enough. So we need to find strategies to help these women that are still stuck inside the country.

Taber is calling on the international Christian community to stand with these vulnerable women in prayer and practical support at this difficult time.

Read more news on Christian Persecution, Human Rights and Violence Against Women.