Stories from South Asia
It was a chilly Friday afternoon when an extended roar of more than two dozen motorbikes pierced the silence in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province. To an outsider, the sudden invasion earlier this month by a large group of men on […]
Taliban Prime Minister Mohammed Hassan Akhund has been criticised by Afghans and the international community over comments he made on the country’s worsening famine crisis. In his first speech since the extremist group took control of Afghanistan in August, Mr Akhund addressed the nation […]
When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in August, Mohammad Yasin had to make some difficult decisions very quickly. As the country reeled from the shock of the insurgent takeover, the 21-year-old—whose name has been changed to protect his safety—snuck into […]
Afghan television personalities say the Taliban’s new rules controlling women on screen will exclude half of the population from popular culture. The Taliban’s reinstated Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued eight guidelines on Sunday, including a […]
At 32 years old, Dr. K is old enough to remember the first time the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1995. She was 7 when girls were banned from school. “For years, my mother ensured that we continued our […]
Negina Azimi felt shock and fear like never before when she heard that Taliban fighters had entered Kabul on 15 August. As an outspoken female artist in Afghanistan, she knew they would come for her. “We heard reports that the Taliban […]
As the Taliban marched into Kabul on August 15, Zarifa*, a 32-year-old Afghan lawyer, knew she had to make some difficult decisions, fast. She faced threats from the insurgent group for her work in protecting women’s legal rights, and risked […]
Fears are growing for a photojournalist who has been detained by the Taliban for more than three weeks after being arrested while covering the women’s protests in Herat. Morteza Samadi, 21, a freelance photographer, was one of several journalists who were arrested […]
YEARS BEFORE BECOMING a journalist, I learned about Afghanistan as a child growing up in Mumbai. Afghanistan holds a significant place in Indian history and mythology, and in school, I learned about places like the ancient region of Gandhara — located […]
Everything that 19-year-old Zahra* knew about the Taliban, she learned from Khaled Hosseini’s novels. “My parents didn’t tell me much about what it was like for them living under [the] Taliban because they were protecting me. But I knew about […]