Madness of War

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2018

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a small cold courtyard in Herat in Afghanistan, two former enemies sit chained together. One is a former warlord, the other a Taliban fighter. Both men are dangerous. Both men are suffering from severe psychiatric conditions. The courtyard is where all 300 inmates of Afghanistan’s only secure psychiatric spend their day; men and women who are too dangerous to be treated in a general hospital. Nearly four decades of war have left a terrible legacy of mental health problems in Afghanistan. In a country where mental illness is often viewed with suspicion and stigma, the challenges of dealing with it are immense. For Assignment, Sahar Zand, gains unprecedented access to the institution, the only one of its kind in the country, where she meets the medical staff trying to deal with Afghanistan’s mental health emergency and the patients, traumatised by decades of conflict.

Transcript

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0:00.0	A cold small courtyard surrounded by tall cracked walls covered with
0:14.5	Baba. This is where about 50 women are securely locked away from the outside world.
0:29.5	One of them is talking to a tree. Another is viciously picking the corner of her headscarf and a few are curled up quietly gazing into an
0:36.8	empty space with an absent look. With tears running down her wrinkled face, one of their residents gets a tight grip on my wrist.
0:48.0	I'm not crazy, I swear I'm not not this place is for crazy people I don't want to be here anymore
0:59.4	This is the only secure psychiatric Institute in a country that's been at war for almost 14 years.
1:07.0	I'm Sahazand and for the BBC World Service assignment of travel to Herat in Western Afghanistan.
1:17.0	With unprecedented access, I meet the medical stuff trying to deal with the country's mental health emergency and the patients
1:24.8	traumatized by decades of conflict. I mean the Red Crescent High Security Psychiatric Institute.
1:35.0	This is where about 300 of the most dangerous Afghan men and women with mental health illnesses are kept.
1:43.6	Not a proper building.
1:45.1	The rundown courtyard with a couple of small unfurnished rooms houses patients from all over the
1:51.6	country.
2:05.0	Across the locked rusty metal gate is the men's section. This is where the 250 male patients are kept, mostly chained and highly sedated.
2:17.0	their age ranges from 14 to over 80 years old and they come from different walks of life.
2:22.0	When will you release me?
2:25.0	What time can I leave?
2:28.0	The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
2:32.0	The Afghan fighters known as the Mujahideen,
2:35.3	battled against the Soviet forces leading to their withdrawal in 1989.
2:39.6	This was the start of a 10-year long civil war, leading to the rise of the Taliban,
2:44.8	who continued their bloody insurgency to this day.
	...

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