A Story of Creative Healing: Women’s Journey in Afghanistan
When Soledad Muñiz, InsightShare’s Director of Programmes, first heard the proposal for a women-only participatory video project in Afghanistan, her initial reaction was one of hesitation. “Under the circumstances that the country is going through, the first feeling was fear… would this be possible?” she remembers. The Taliban’s takeover had ushered in strict limitations on women’s mobility and rights, and Sole, who has led programmes at InsightShare for fifteen years, holds firm to a central principle: “do no harm.” That ethos demanded exceptional care in shaping what would become a deeply sensitive and hopeful project that began with research and design in 2023.
Working closely with an international donor and one of the local partners leading the psychosocial support component of their humanitarian response programme, the team—led by Sole, with Pooja Kishnani as facilitator and Taahira Ayoob as operations and learning officer—used Participatory Video as psychosocial support for women.
Designing a Healing Space Through participatory arts and media
Pooja Kishnani, the lead facilitator, was both startled and inspired when she learned the project would go ahead. “When I first heard about it, I couldn’t believe it was actually happening because of the situation in the country… There was a mixture of concern, caution, but also excitement because we were about to do something very meaningful,” she said.
Pooja and Sole began researching how to root the sessions in local cultural expressions. Sole explains, “I would only read literature written by national authors… the pulse of accumulated history and national identity, local intellectuals in each country can do that really well (..) which I found through My Pen is the Wing of a Bird. New Fiction by Afghan Women and its continuation in “My Dear Kabul: A year in the life of an Afghan women’s writing group.” Through Afghan books and poetry (Landays), Sole and Pooja discovered ways local people articulate identity, resilience, and grief. This inspired a key design element: weaving art and poetry into healing exercises.
Pooja, an artist herself, brought visual art into the process. “Let’s use art… include art exercises for trauma healing in the design,” she proposed. Sole chose to work with landays—short, powerful poems traditionally shared by Afghan women. “Landays worked really well, I was incredibly impressed by the speed and extent to which the women were writing poems!”. Some expressed themselves through art and painting… others preferred writing. I think that was a really great way of creating a safe space going forward,” Pooja reflected.
These varied forms of expression, drawing, painting, and poetry, allowed each woman to engage on her own terms. It was a collective act of creative healing. As Sole put it, “We needed to co-create a space of well-being that could only be built with their trust and interests.”
Building Trust Through Shared Stories
The early sessions were designed to build trust. Cameras were introduced only after several meetings. To warm things up, we introduced the “name game,” encouraging women to film each other introducing themselves in creative ways. At first, some thought this was just attendance-taking, but laughter quickly broke the tension as they realised it was about being seen and remembered for who they were and how they wished to identify themselves.
Sole was amazed at their eagerness to participate and speak up: “They were given the option of remaining anonymous and using a pseudonym, but they all refused! They wanted to be visible and be heard.”
Over four sessions, stories began to surface. As Pooja recalls, “It was kind of tears of joy, of celebration of connection, rather than… tears for them going through things you can’t change.” The room, though virtual, began to feel like a circle of care.
When the group of twenty women gathered for the first screenings, Sole observed something remarkable: “The screening showed that flow of excitement, pride and support for each other, saying nice things to each other.” Participants had not only created films, they had formed a community with women they had previously not known but grew closer to.
By January 2025, when the women reconvened online to watch each other’s work, many had already begun meeting outside sessions. “We told them… to stay in touch… that is also something you gain from this process, getting to know each other,” Sole noted.
In the end, the strongest impact was relational: “Those also are signs of success… not just that they produce lovely videos.”
Rising to the Challenges
The political climate required flexibility. Laws and restrictions changed from not letting women go to hospitals to women not being able to sing. From the outside, the team had to wait and listen to the local team make a decision alongside the women. But the local coordinator explained, “After the delay because of a security issue… when it was safe, we communally agreed to continue.”
Risk assessments were always community-led. Women were involved in these decisions, tailoring the process to their comfort levels.
Technical limitations were another challenge. Originally, InsightShare planned to lend cameras to protect privacy in case of device seizures, but many women preferred to use their own phones. “We realised they were more afraid… of being found out with this equipment than using their own personal phone,” Sole explained. The team adapted: “You use the one that you feel comfortable with… you cannot have that perfect equipment situation,” said Pooja.
What mattered the most was not flawless production, but that every woman could tell her own story the way they wanted to in a safe space.
A New Pulse of Possibility
Throughout the sessions, seemingly small gestures built safety, like Pooja’s regular check-ins. “Even the simple act of asking the ladies what they ate for breakfast, and how they felt at each point was critical,” she said. It wasn’t just about filmmaking; it was about building emotional bridges.
The project offered Afghan women something long denied: voice, community, and agency. It wasn’t only about storytelling. It was about being heard, seen, and celebrated.
Partner Reflections
The international partner shared her admiration for the project’s outcomes. “It was a real learning experience to see how the women responded… I could not have anticipated everyone wanting to know the skill of videoing, and… the importance of being in control of your own story.”
She praised the project’s reach, although small in size in comparison to the size of the country: “The ways in which the women benefited… is really sustainable, they will continue sharing skills and videos.”
The local in-country coordinator highlighted how much had been achieved for relatively little. “The cost wasn’t high and the impact and inspiration were tremendous!” she said. And importantly, involving women in managing risks was empowering in itself.
Celebrating Achievements
Against all political instability and security risks, the women succeeded in learning how to film and record videos, and through that process reclaimed their voice and visibility. The local project coordinator shared that even office colleagues began “creating videos in their jobs on success stories of their work.” Some participants trained others, amplifying the project’s reach.
“The stereotype that women above 40 may not be interested… showed otherwise,” the local coordinator reflected, proudly recounting a 45-year-old woman who participated with infectious enthusiasm.
The training also offered emotional reprieve. Women shared how it helped them confront isolation, depression, and boredom during the project evaluation. As one participant described, arriving every first day of the week to come together to learn something new gave her “a sense of purpose”. Confidence bloomed as well, as the project coordinator joked that, “in other regular meetings they don’t speak! Here (at the InsightShare session) they couldn’t stop talking and sharing.”
“We were so glad this was not another course on cooking or stitching,” one participant remarked, underscoring how rare and meaningful it was to be offered something different, something that valued their minds, stories, and voices.
In contexts of protracted crisis, too often, women’s experiences are sidelined or reduced to survival. But this project proved otherwise: that when women are trusted to tell their own stories, they do so with brilliance, honesty, and strength. The emotional healing, confidence, and connection that emerged were not accidental outcomes; they were the direct result of placing women’s voices, needs, and creativity at the very centre.
Names of partner organisations, women and locations have been omitted for security reasons.