logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2022
40m 31s

Who Leaves, Who Stays

THE ATLANTIC
About this episode
When Taliban forces seized control of Kabul last year, many Afghans faced life-changing choices. One family's decision led to a harrowing journey for a young woman and her sister. Related Links Bushra Seddique wrote about her escape from the Taliban for the September 2022 issue And she's reported on "What Afghans Want the Rest of the World to Know" This ... Show More
Up next
Oct 9
Saudi Arabia Gets the Last Laugh
The Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia concludes this week, but the outrage (from comedians who didn’t go) and self-justification (from comedians who did) continues. The festival is one small piece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s grand vision to remake the kingdom for t ... Show More
29 m
Oct 2
Weaponizing the Justice Department
President Donald Trump is using the Department of Justice to try to punish his political enemies. How much can the president bend the DOJ, an institution built on norms and ethics, to his will before it breaks? In this episode, we talk to the Atlantic staff writer Quinta Jurecic, ... Show More
40m 32s
Sep 25
An American Education | 2. Testing Teachers for 'Wokeness'
Hanna Rosin sits down with Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters to ask him about a purity test for teachers and a nearly scandalous incident that happened days before the interview. And two Oklahoma high-school teachers take very different paths. This is the second episode ... Show More
41m 12s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2022
Afghan women keep hope alive one year after the fall of Kabul
One year after the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghan-Canadian author Nahid Shahalimi says the voices of Afghan women are not being heard. In her new book, We Are Still Here: Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom, and the Fight to Be Heard, Shahalimi collects the stories and struggles of ... Show More
26m 45s
Aug 2021
Portraits of Afghanistan Before the Fall
Twenty years since the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban have once again seized power of the country. In the months leading up to the fall of the nation’s capital, National Geographic photographer Kiana Hayeri and writer Jason Motlagh heard the storie ... Show More
31m 10s
Sep 2022
Nahid Shahalimi Gathers the Voices of Afghan Women
It was just a year ago that the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. On that date, Nahid Shahalimi, an Afghan female writer living in Germany, realized that she needed to hurry to record the stories of prominent Afghan women who soon would try to escape their country, or st ... Show More
38m 13s
Jan 2022
A Wish for Afghanistan: The advocate and the musicians
Another chance to hear from some of the BBC's acclaimed series examining the seismic events shaping Afghanistan before and after this year's return to power of the Taliban. After last week's episode featuring Taliban founder Mullah Zaeef and former President Hamid Karzai, the BBC ... Show More
51m 13s
Aug 2022
The Taliban Takeover, One Year Later
One year ago this week, when the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, they promised to institute a modern form of Islamic government that honored women’s rights.That promise evaporated with a sudden decision to prohibit girls from going to high school, prompting questions about ... Show More
22m 55s
Oct 2021
‘The Decision of My Life’
This episode contains descriptions of violence and a suicide attempt.When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, our producer started making calls. With the help of colleagues, she contacted women in different cities and towns to find out how their lives had changed and wha ... Show More
44m 42s
Jun 2023
The New Afghanistan, Through the Eyes of Three Women
This episode contains descriptions of violence.In the two years since the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, the Taliban has shut women and girls out of public life.Christina Goldbaum, a correspondent in the Kabul bureau for The New York Times, traveled across Afghanistan t ... Show More
40m 19s
Dec 2014
Afghan Women: Speaking Out, Losing Lives
A vivid portrait of the everyday lives of girls and women at a turning point in Afghan history. Lyse Doucet visits Kabul to see how the lives of Afghan girls and women have changed since the fall of the Taliban 13 years ago, and to hear concerns that these hard-won gains are alre ... Show More
27 m
Nov 2021
The plight of girls under the Taliban
In Afghanistan, high schools are currently closed to girls, and women have been banned from TV dramas. So how hard is life for the female half of the population, as the Taliban reassert control?Tamasin Ford hears from her colleague Yalda Hakim, who recently returned to the Afghan ... Show More
18m 13s
Aug 2022
Afghan Stars now
A year on from the Taliban takeover of Kabul on 15th August 2021, Sahar Zand talks to some of the Afghans who featured in her 2019 World Service programme Afghan Stars, which told the story of a ground-breaking TV music talent show in Afghanistan, which was won for the first time ... Show More
28m 20s