A Bitter Winter in Afghanistan
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kate Adie presents stories from Afghanistan, Peru, Russia, the US and Spain
As Afghanistan experiences its harshest winter in a decade, Lyse Doucet travels to Salang, the world's highest road tunnel. After roadside service comes to her team's rescue, she visits a struggling family who are cut off from aid and battling to keep warm.
Peru is seeing some of its worst clashes since the return of democracy, with protesters demanding that interim president, Dina Boluarte, resign and make way for a general election and a new constitution. Many of the biggest protests were in southern Peru but Mitra Taj spoke to those who took their grievances to the capital, Lima.
We meet a drag queen in Saint Petersburg who says Russia's new anti-LGBT law is crushing gay nightlife in the city. Our correspondent Will Vernon discovers this increased censorship also extends to bookshops, streaming services and high street shops -all part of Vladimir Putin's battle against Western values.
Barbara Plett Usher was in Washington for the anti-abortion activists' annual March for Life, which has been held every year since the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. She meets protesters on both sides of the debate, and finds America's battle over abortion is far from over.
In Spain, Guy Hedgecoe visits San Fernando, the hometown of the much revered flamenco singer, Camarón de la Isla, where, three decades after the singer's death, his memory is as cherished as the legacy of his music.
Producers: Serena Tarling and Louise Hidalgo Production Coordinator: Iona Hammond
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today, in Peru, seeds of violent unrest have underscored a deep political divide |
| 0:06.1 | in a country which narrowly escaped a coup before Christmas. |
| 0:10.4 | We meet a drag queen in St. Petersburg, who describes how his performance venues |
| 0:16.2 | are being shuttered amid Vladimir Putin's clampdown on Western values. |
| 0:21.9 | In the US, we're among anti-abortion protesters in the march for life. |
| 0:26.8 | We hear why they are still dissatisfied even after Roe vs. Wade was overturned. |
| 0:33.3 | And the distinctive rhythms and guitar chords of Flamenco reverberate in the streets of San |
| 0:39.3 | Fernando in Spain, which still celebrates a groundbreaking musician. |
| 0:44.8 | First, Afghanistan, which is now experiencing its harshest winter in a decade. |
| 0:51.2 | Freezing temperatures have already killed more than 120 people and more than 70,000 livestock. |
| 0:59.2 | 28 million Afghans, more than half the population, need relief to survive. |
| 1:06.0 | But a new Taliban government, Edict, one of many which restrict the lives of women and girls, |
| 1:12.1 | has ruled that Afghan women cannot work with the aid agencies. |
| 1:17.4 | Leased to set who's been reporting on Afghanistan for many years, |
| 1:21.6 | set out to find out what it's like to live in these freezing temperatures. |
| 1:27.5 | Oh, it's more dangerous than Ukraine. The online message from an old friend startled me. |
| 1:34.4 | How could a trip out of Kabul, on the main highway heading north to the Salang tunnel, |
| 1:39.6 | be more dangerous than a crushing war in Ukraine? I'm always afraid when people go there, |
| 1:44.9 | Thomas told me. He lived in Kabul in the 1980s as an East German diplomat. He knew everything |
| 1:51.3 | anyone needs to know about this tunnel, snaking through the magnificent massive of the Hindu |
| 1:57.6 | Kush. The world's highest road tunnel had been a Soviet engineering marvel during its cold war |
| 2:04.4 | rivalry with America. But over the decades, the Salang became the stuff of legend and lore. |
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