Zakia Zaki

Zakia Zaki was known for being independent and an activist in her community. While she was the founder of the Afghan Peace Radio station, the 35-year-old woman was also the headmistress at a local school. She and her husband Abdul Ahad Ranjabr had six children—four sons and two daughters—and two of her children were present at the time of her murder. The family resided about 40 miles north of Kabul in Parwan.

Zakia Zaki (c. 1972 – June 4, 2007), an Afghan journalist for the Afghan Radio Peace (Sada-i-Sulh) station north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Zaki was the first Afghani journalist to speak out against the Taliban after the US forces initiated the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), while she also championed other causes like gender equality and women's rights in Afghanistan.Her murder was seen as part of a series of recent attacks against high-profile Afghan women.

Zaki was killed in her home outside of Kabul in April 2007. Before her murder, Zakia Zaki had received threats to shut down her radio station and on her life. On June 4, 2007, around midnight, three men armed with handguns and rifles entered Zaki's family home and shot her 7 times in the head and the chest while she slept and then fled. Two of her six children were in the room but left unharmed. Zaki's 8-month-old son was in bed with her but it was her 7 or 8-year-old son who called her husband and informed him of Zaki's death.

Zaki was founder and an active journalist at the Afghan Peace Radio (Sada-i-Sulh) in Jabal Saraj, Jabal Saraj District, Parwan, Afghanistan. The station was U.S. funded and often spoke out on controversial issues such as women rights and the Taliban insurgency. The United States secretly funded 6 hours of the station's broadcasting everyday. France paid for the first year of production and 15 days of radio training for Zaki. Afghan Radio Peace was started in October 2001 after the initial fall of the Taliban. Local warlords and conservatives wanted to shut down the radio station, and Zaki received deaths threats in the days leading up to her assassination. Aside from being a journalist, Zaki was also a school teacher and ran for parliament in 2005.

Zakia Zaki was one of the few female journalists to speak out during the Taliban's reign. Shakaiba Sanga Amaj (sometimes spelled Shakiba) was another female journalist located in Kabul. Amaj was 22 years old and a fierce competitor of Zaki's. Amaj's murder took place only six days before Zakis's on June 1. The lives of women in Afghanistan improved slightly after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 but many still rejected the idea of women being in the public eye.