Heart and Soul: Afghanistan 20 years on

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Twenty years ago, reporter Julia Paul was teaching media to young women in an Afghanistan where the Taliban were in retreat, if only temporarily. Now she has tracked down two of them again to find out how their lives have fared in the decades since. Some have fled abroad while others are still in Afghanistan, imprisoned in their homes. But even for those who have escaped, life is far from easy. As one of the army of secular western aid workers that flooded Afghan society all those years ago, Julia discusses with the women whether or not the West should have intervened in the first place.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	A woman in a beautiful blue and silver dress is dancing with the bride at a traditional Afghan wedding. She has organized this flamboyant event and her name is
0:17.1	Hathra. But this is not Afghanistan. This family is in exile in Canada. I first met Hatala two decades ago in a remote
0:28.6	northwestern province of Afghanistan when her life and mine were very different.
0:34.0	I'm
0:35.0	I'm Julia Paul and in 2004 I made my first visit to Afghanistan. I was part of a wave of international
0:48.8	aid workers who flooded into the country to help capacity build. I was training young people to work in
0:55.8	the media to report on the first elections, but I fell in love with the country and the
1:01.2	people.
1:02.2	Jamil Janansala.
1:03.2	Welcome to Kabul, Afghanistan.
1:06.5	It's part of a project called Women Spread the Word,
1:09.7	put together by journalist and writer Julia Paul.
1:12.8	Since then I visited many more times to train journalists
1:16.2	and work with women writers, and even delivered online training
1:20.6	when the security situation deteriorated.
1:23.0	Hi Julia.
1:25.0	Hi, hi, how are you?
1:27.0	Great.
1:28.0	I'm sorry I'm not there.
1:31.0	But three years ago, the Taliban retook the country.
1:35.0	Now most of Afghanistan's thriving media has been closed down
1:41.0	and hard-won women's rights have been reversed.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.