Are women only visible when they are suffering? In many humanitarian campaigns, news stories, and development reports, women from countries in the Global South are often shown in moments of struggle. We see them as mothers in refugee camps, survivors of war, or faces of poverty. These situations are real, and in many places women do face serious challenges and risks. Many organisations working in emergencies and child protection focus on these urgent needs for a reason.

But the question remains important: when women are mostly represented through suffering, what parts of their lives are we not seeing?

A lot of these images are not random. They are carefully chosen to create emotional reactions, attract attention, and encourage support. Over time, this creates a pattern where women are repeatedly shown as symbols of pain and crisis. They become “proof” of problems rather than full human beings with different identities, ambitions, and strengths.

The idea of “vulnerability” also starts to take a specific shape. Instead of being understood as something that can happen to anyone in different situations, it becomes quietly attached to women. Women are not only shown as vulnerable in certain moments they are often seen as vulnerable by default. This matters because it slowly shapes how people think. It turns “being a woman” into a label for weakness, even though vulnerability is a human experience that all people can go through.

We see this clearly in “before and after” storytelling [Read more: ‘Picturing Afghan Women’ for Western audiences: The Afghan perspective] . Women are often used as the “before” representing hardship, struggle, or lack while a project, organisation, or programme becomes the “after,” showing improvement or success. In this structure, women’s lives are only partially shown. We only see the parts that fit the story. This makes their identity smaller than it really is. People are turned into symbols instead of individuals.

The women of my country, Afghanistan, offer a sharp example of this. Afghan women are often portrayed through stories of conflict, restriction, or trauma. These realities are real and important, but they are not the full picture. Afghan women are also students, educators, artists, professionals, and leaders  in public and in private life, often despite very difficult circumstances.

These stories are often less visible because they are not seen as “attention-grabbing” enough. They don’t fit the familiar narrative of crisis. As a result, we end up seeing only one side of their reality. Afghan women become known mostly through their suffering, while their resilience, creativity, and persistence are often left out of the frame.

My own research on the impact of digital and online education for Afghan girls post-2021 explored this gap more closely [Read more]. Following the restrictions on formal education, many online learning initiatives, scholarships, and internet support programmes emerged to provide alternative access to education. These efforts have created real opportunities in a very difficult context. At the same time, my research asked an important question: do these initiatives create meaningful and lasting educational access, or do they sometimes remain limited by deeper structural barriers that access alone cannot solve? What often becomes less visible is the role of the girls themselves, their effort, consistency, and determination to continue learning despite everything. When stories focus mainly on programmes, the agency of the learners can quietly disappear.

What emerged from this research was a more nuanced picture of impact. Digital and online education initiatives have indeed played a meaningful role in helping Afghan girls continue their education after 2021. These programmes created opportunities that many girls would not otherwise have had. However, the findings also showed that educational success cannot be attributed to programmes alone. Much of the impact was made possible by the persistence, discipline, and determination of the girls themselves, who continued learning despite social, economic, and political barriers. Their achievements should not be understood solely as evidence of successful interventions, but also as evidence of their own agency and commitment to education. When stories focus primarily on organisations and programmes, there is a risk that the efforts of the girls themselves become secondary. A more balanced narrative recognises both the value of these initiatives and the resilience of the young women who turned those opportunities into meaningful outcomes.

This leads to a difficult but important question: when does storytelling move from raising awareness to oversimplifying reality? Humanitarian storytelling is meant to help people understand issues and encourage action. But when the same patterns are repeated, especially through clean “before and after” narratives,  they can start to flatten complex lives into simple stories. In doing so, they risk reducing people to the roles of victim or beneficiary.

This does not mean suffering should be hidden or ignored. It is real, and it matters. But it cannot be the only way we see women. There is a big difference between showing reality and reducing it.

We can do better. We can tell fuller stories. Stories that show women as thinkers, creators, workers, entrepreneurs, educators, and leaders [Read more about research and examples of good practice]. Stories where they are not only the subjects of aid or research, but also participants in shaping their own narratives.

Ethical storytelling does not ignore suffering, but it also does not let suffering define everything. When women are shown only through pain, something important is lost: their full humanity. Bringing that back is not just about better communication, it is about respect.

At Includovate, where I serve as a Communications Officer, our reflections shape not just the stories we tell but also how we engage in research and communication. Rooted in feminist and inclusive values, we strive to move past narratives that portray women solely as vulnerable or suffering. Instead, we want to create a space where individuals can share their own stories and be recognized as the experts of their own experiences.

In practice, this means making thoughtful choices throughout the storytelling process. Before we share personal stories, we prioritise informed consent and are open about how the information will be used. We honor individuals’ decisions about what they wish to share and what they prefer to keep private. We also aim to go beyond narratives that focus solely on hardship by asking what other aspects should be highlighted: What strengths, decisions, skills, leadership, or contributions are missing from the story? These questions help us ensure that people are portrayed with dignity and agency, rather than being reduced to a single experience or identity.

A great example of this was during our 16 Days of Activism campaign, where we invited a woman with lived experience to share her story in her own words. Instead of just focusing on what she had endured, we also delved into her resilience, choices, and the path she’s forging ahead. This may seem like a subtle shift, but it fundamentally changes who has authority over the narrative. Rather than speaking for someone, we create a platform for them to voice their own experiences. 

For us, ethics isn’t just a checkbox in communications; it’s a core principle that guides how we interact with people and represent their experiences. While no organization gets it right all the time, being intentional about ethical representation is one way we can ensure that communication contributes to the solution rather than exacerbating the problem. If development communication is genuinely committed to inclusion, then organizations, researchers, and communicators must start asking not only whether women.

By Beheshta Saeidi, Communications Officer at Includovate

Resources

Saeidi, B. (2025). The Impact of Online Education & Digital NGOs on Afghan Girls’ Learning in the Post-2021 Era.
This research examines how online education and digital NGOs have supported Afghan girls’ access to learning following the restrictions on formal education after 2021, while also exploring the structural barriers that continue to affect educational access and participation.
 Read the full research paper on ResearchGate⁠

Mitra, S. (2020). “Picturing Afghan Women” for Western audiences: The Afghan perspective. Journalism, 21(6), 800–820.
This research examines how Afghan women are portrayed in Western news media and highlights the influence of visual gatekeeping, stereotypes, and Western narratives in shaping these representations. It also raises important ethical concerns about the risks that can arise when photographing and representing Afghan women.
 Read the research article⁠

Ahmadi, S., & Agarwal, N. K. (2025). “Virtual Pathways to Learning: Girls’ Education in Afghanistan.” Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology.
This research examines online education as an alternative pathway for girls in Afghanistan following restrictions on formal education, including the experiences and perspectives of students, parents, school leaders, and organisations.
 Read the research⁠

UNHCR. (2024). UNHCR Ethical Communications Guidelines.
These guidelines outline principles for ethical communication, including dignified representation, challenging stereotypes, amplifying people’s voices, informed consent, doing no harm, and accountability.
 Read the guidelines⁠

Creative Commons — Sharing Openly Licensed Work
A resource for understanding Creative Commons licenses, attribution requirements, and responsible reuse of photographs and other creative work.
 Creative Commons⁠

Women and Leadership

Ross Arguedas, A., Mukherjee, M., & Nielsen, R. K. (2025). Women and leadership in the news media 2025: Evidence from 12 markets. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford.
Read the Article

Photo Sources & Credits

The photographs used in this article were selected to support the central argument of the piece: women should be represented not only through hardship and vulnerability, but also through education, work, participation, and agency.

Afghan Women in Kabul
 Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.
 View the photograph and license information⁠

Female Students at Kabul University
 Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.
 View the photograph and license information⁠

Woman Studying with a Laptop
 Mikhail Nilov, Pexels. Free to use under the Pexels License.
 View the photograph on Pexels⁠