A radio lifeline for Afghan women

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Women in Afghanistan are unable to access education, and getting medical help is difficult. But a radio station in the Panjshir Valley is trying to get crucial information to them nevertheless. Their broadcasts cover everything from breast feeding to basic school science lessons for women and girls who are often isolated. Shekiba Habib of BBC Afghan services went to meet the people making this lifeline radio.

India is a country of well over a billion people, so the clearing of waste, requires a huge number of sanitation workers. About 98% of those workers are from one caste in society, who find it difficult to get jobs in any other industries. Ashay Yedge reports for BBC in India talked to some sanitation workers about why.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world.

Presented by Faranak Amidi

Produced by Rebecca Moore and Caroline Ferguson

This is an EcoAudio certified production.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:06.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:13.8	You're listening The Fifth Floor.
0:17.6	The Fifth Floor, you know you.
0:20.0	You're like that the fifth floor, Farn listening. This is the fifth floor
0:23.2	Farnak Amidi, Sobath.
0:26.7	This is the fifth floor
0:28.5	at the heart of global storytelling
0:31.2	with BBC journalists
0:32.9	from all around the world.
0:35.0	I'm your host, Faranak Amid. Just an hour's drive away from Kabul is the Panshear Valley. It's one of the smallest
0:48.8	provinces in Afghanistan, and it's known for its beauty, semi-precious jewels and resistance.
0:55.4	It was a stronghold against Soviet forces in the 80s, the Taliban in the 90s, and it was
1:01.5	the last place to fall to the Taliban when they came back to power in 2021.
1:07.4	But now, despite being under Taliban control, people there are finding a way to help each other, especially women, through the power of radio.
1:17.1	In Pan Shire, there is a weekly radio program made by women, for women, trying to meet the crucial needs of women and girls who no longer have access to schools and in some cases basic medical
1:29.9	services. This is a clip of the presenter discussing what will be in the program for that week.
1:40.0	Shekiba Habib of BBC Afghan Services recently traveled back to Afghanistan to meet the people
1:45.5	resisting through radio in the Panshir Valley. Welcome, Shikiba, to Fliplairs. Always great to have you.
1:51.5	Thank you. Thank you. The pleasure is always mine.
1:54.2	Shakiba, before we speak about the radio station, before this visit, when was the last time you
1:59.2	went back to Afghanistan? I left Afghanistan when the Taliban came to power the first time in 90s, in 1996, to be precise.
	...

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