logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2020
27m 8s

Reza's story

Bbc World Service
About this episode

A death-defying migrant's story... Said Reza Adib was a TV journalist in Afghanistan. In 2016, about to break a story about the sexual abuse of children by Afghan men in authority, he received a threat to his life. Reza fled across the border to Iran. But journalism was in his blood, and in Iran he began to investigate sensitive stories related to the war in Syria. When Iranian authorities confiscated his laptop, he knew his life was again in danger. That same day, with his wife and two small children, he began a perilous journey to safety in Finland – an odyssey that would last four years. The family would survive shooting on the Turkish border, a voyage across the Aegean Sea on an overcrowded makeshift vessel with fake lifejackets, and then the nightmare of refugee camps in Greece. It was here that Chloe Hadjimatheou met Reza, and for Assignment she tells the story of a remarkable journalist who’s continued to ply his trade - in spite of the odds stacked against him.

Producer: Linda Pressly

(Image: Said Reza Adib. Credit: Sayed Ahmadzia Ebrahimi)

Up next
Today
Ark of the dry lands
Researchers in Morocco are developing dry-land agriculture at ICARDA (the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas). It is home to a gene bank, in which around 150,000 different seed-types are kept in perfectly calibrated cold vaults, and duplicated to prot ... Show More
26m 29s
Yesterday
Bonus. World of Secrets: The Killing Call
Sidhu Moose Wala explodes onto the Canadian music scene. His sound is a fusion of two worlds - hip-hop with the poetic language of rural Punjab, where he is from. After years of struggle he is making it. But with the spotlight comes a dark side. As his fame grows, so do the threa ... Show More
35m 54s
Jul 8
Re-homing France’s immigrant workers
France’s last foyers – housing for immigrant workers – are set for demolition. But some current residents are worried about what they’ll lose. Hundreds of “foyers” - housing units especially for immigrant workers – were built after World War II. The economy was booming and France ... Show More
27m 11s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2022
Who Leaves, Who Stays
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 A ... Show More
40m 31s
Dec 2019
Update: To Oslo With Love
Today, an update on a story from the Kerning Cultures vault.Elie was a journalist looking for her next story when she met Ziad at a party in Istanbul. Ziad was a Syrian refugee hoping to travel to Europe and apply for asylum. Elie asked Ziad if she could follow him to Norway, his ... Show More
1 h
Jul 2023
Kaouther Ben Hania pour «Les filles d’Olfa»
C’est un fait divers qui a défrayé la chronique en Tunisie en 2015 : le départ de Tunisie de deux adolescentes ayant rejoint Daech pour faire le jihad. Leur mère, Olfa Hamrouni, avait remué ciel et terre et mobilisé les médias pour retrouver ses deux filles aînées. La réalisatric ... Show More
48m 30s
May 2017
Elif Shafak
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Turkish writer Elif Shafak. Elif Shafak has published ten novels and several volumes of non-fiction and her work is translated into 47 languages. She is the most widely read female novelist in Turkey today.Born in 1971, she was raised by a ... Show More
35m 10s
Jul 2023
Sofi Oksanen: Purge
Bestselling author Sofi Oksanen answers readers' questions about her novel Purge. It's a harrowing story of sexual violence, betrayal and retribution which charts the troubled history of Estonia during and after the Second World War. Told through the lives of two women, the story ... Show More
50m 6s
Jun 2021
The real-life superheroes helping Syrian refugees | Feras Fayyad
Society has a set of stories it tells itself about who refugees are and what they look like, says documentarian and TED Fellow Feras Fayyad. With his films, he's on a mission to separate the facts about refugees from fiction, as a form of resistance -- for himself, his daughter a ... Show More
6m 54s
May 2024
Why Focusing on Abusers Instead of Survivors Misses the Point
Survivors, not statistics: We start with the persistent and pernicious violence against women, and the lack of action and accountability to protect them. This week two more women accused rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs of sexual assault. This comes after CNN obtained sickening video of ... Show More
40m 22s