Kabul’s Missing Daughter, a new book by Afghan journalist Zahra Joya, founder and editor of Rukhshana Media, was published in the United Kingdom on Thursday, July 24. The book was officially launched at Daunt Books in London, where approximately 120 guests attended the event.
The book combines Joya’s personal memoir with her experience in investigative journalism and offers a sweeping account of Afghanistan’s political and social transformations over the past several decades. Through this work, she weaves her own life story together with documented reporting and historical context.
Speaking at the launch, Joya said: “Kabul’s Missing Daughter is not only the story of my life. It is an attempt to document the hidden and untold history of Afghan women and to amplify the voices that have been overlooked amid war, displacement, discrimination, and erasure.”
She also described the book’s approach, saying: “My goal was to combine the intimacy of a memoir with the precision and urgency of investigative journalism, in order to portray the harsh realities of gender-based oppression a phenomenon that is not confined to Afghanistan but exists in many parts of the world.”
The book was co-authored with Emi Ferris-Rotman, an award-winning journalist. It is published and distributed internationally by Robinson, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group.
In a statement marking the publication, Robinson said: “Today we are proud to publish Kabul’s Missing Daughter by Zahra Joya and Emi Ferris-Rotman. This is a story of courage, resilience, and hope, and it is now available through leading bookstores.”
Kabul’s Missing Daughter is published in a 283-page edition. According to the publisher, the book will also be translated into multiple languages and is scheduled for release in the United States and other English-speaking markets on October 6.
Writer:Salima Aryaei
