OS Conversations: Afghanistan
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2021
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This audio was updated on 16th August.
The Taliban is advancing towards Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as foreign forces prepare to fully withdraw from the country. Thousands of people are being displaced and many more are fearful about what lies ahead. Reporting the news in the country can result in death threats and loss of life, and host Nuala McGovern hears from Afghan journalists who are determined to continue working despite the dangers, including losing colleagues. Two women also share their fears for the future, concerned that their rights will go back two decades, to a time when women were not allowed to work or leave the house without an escort.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Nula McGovern on the BBC World Service, and this is BBC OS conversations, Afghanistan. |
| 0:07.0 | The Taliban is advancing towards the capital of Kabul as foreign forces are leaving the country. |
| 0:18.0 | We hear from journalists under the constant threat of death for doing their job and also from two working women in |
| 0:24.8 | Afghanistan who share their fears for their immediate future. |
| 0:28.3 | Every night I have personally nightmares. |
| 0:31.3 | nightmares of the Taliban coming or killing or I cannot survive. |
| 0:35.4 | And the next morning when you get up, |
| 0:37.6 | you feel like you're so exhausted. |
| 0:50.0 | President Joe Biden set a symbolic date for full withdrawal of US troops for the 11th of September 2021. 20 years to the day the Islamist militant group Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, |
| 0:56.0 | carried out a series of attacks in Washington and New York. |
| 1:00.0 | Nearly 3,000 people were killed. |
| 1:02.0 | Osama bin Laden was known to be in Afghanistan. 3,000 people were killed. |
| 1:02.6 | Osama bin Laden was known to be in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, and as |
| 1:07.4 | the Taliban refused to hand him over, the U.S. intervened militarily in 2001. Combat continued until 2014 when the Afghan army was |
| 1:17.4 | made responsible for the country's security. And since then the Taliban which |
| 1:22.1 | want to rule with a hard-line form of Islamic law, |
| 1:25.0 | have regrouped and peace talks with the US has led to an agreed withdrawal. |
| 1:30.0 | But as foreign troops leave, the Taliban has taken control of villages and cities across the country. |
| 1:37.0 | Tens of thousands of Afghans are being displaced by the conflict. |
| 1:42.0 | Simply reporting this news directly from the ground is extremely dangerous |
| 1:46.6 | and my colleague Carney Sharp spoke to two Afghan journalists who are trying to share |
| 1:51.2 | what's happening in their country under life-threatening conditions. |
... |
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