Happy Friday! Welcome to our Media Round-Up. Each week we’re collecting and sharing our favorite gender + politics stories. Here’s what caught our eye this week:

These Female Afghan Politicians Are Risking Everything For Their Homeland

Dalia Faheid, NPR

This week, the Taliban completed taking over Afghanistan, after losing power in the country in 2001. According to NPR, even as Afghan leaders left the country as the Taliban advanced, a number of women politicians stayed. Salima Mazari, a district governor; Zarifa Ghafari, Afghanistan’s youngest mayor; and Fawzia Koofi, second deputy speaker of the parliament, are all speaking out against the Taliban. “Women bureaucrats like [Zarifa] Ghafari are risking their lives and freedom to not only save their country and people — but to maintain the rights of women and girls. When the Taliban previously held power in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, women and girls were denied basic rights, including the ability to learn, work or travel.”

Read the full story here.

Hochul pledges new approach to City Hall after ‘sane’ meeting with de Blasio

Erin Durkin and Madina Touré, Politico

New York Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul will become governor this coming Tuesday when Andrew Cuomo resigns from the position. In the lead-up to becoming governor, Hochul met with New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio this week. According to Hochul, “I have a different approach to governing. Everyone has their own style….I roll up my sleeves, and I get the job done, because I don’t have time for distractions, particularly coming into this position … We’re just going to have different approaches.” According to Politico, Hochul and de Blasio discussed a range of topics at their meeting, including managing the pandemic, rent relief, and congestion pricing.

Read the full story here.

‘Who knew Nixon was a homeboy?’ A Q&A with lieutenant governor hopeful Winsome Sears

and ‘We, not me’: Hala Ayala focuses on ‘collective work’ in run for lieutenant governor

Malcolm Ferguson, Virginia Mercury

Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor race this year will make history regardless of which candidate wins. The position has never been held by a woman in Virginia, and no woman of color has held a statewide elected office. In these two articles, the Virginia Mercury conducted a two-part look at the two candidates, Winsome Sears and Hala Ayala.

Read the full Q&A with Winsome Sears here.

Read the full Q&A with Hala Ayala here.

Hochul’s rise latest boost for women in politics, but it’s ‘a long game’ 

Stephen T. Watson, The Buffalo News

Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul will join the ranks of other trailblazers, including Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, State Attorney General Letitia James, and many more. All of these women have advanced to elected positions that were rarely held by women previously, if women held the offices at all. Other women in New York state could make history later this year on Election Day, too—the Erie County sheriff and Buffalo mayor positions both have not been held by women before.

“Women candidates are riding waves of grassroots activism and pushing past outdated notions of the proper roles for men and women or what a leader should look like, politicians and political observers say.”

Still, many levels of elected office do not have gender parity: for one, Hochul will bring the total number of governors in the US to nine, and women hold just 27% of Congressional seats.

Read the full story here.