Leading the Charge with Farahnaz Forotan

At only 28, Farahnaz Forotan has worked at three of Afghanistan’s largest television broadcasters since 2012, hosting flagship talk shows at two of them, including 1TV’s hugely popular weekly program, Kabul Debate, which she's headed since 2019.Forotan is also the founder of My Red Line, an online advocacy campaign allowing Afghans to voice the rights they enjoy now and which they refuse to forfeit or negotiate on as peace negotiations proceed in Doha.We began by talking about Forotan’s earliest years, during the late 1990s after the Taliban had taken control of Kabul and about the conflicts that arose in her family when she started working in the media, later on, in 2012, and how her family’s perception of her work changed since then. We also go into some of the problems she’s had working in the media industry itself, including about the time she volunteered to report from arguably the most dangerous district in the country. She tells me what annoys her about the way foreign reporters cover Afghanistan and about the lack of basic safety protections Afghan journalists have.Forotan talks about My Red Line and how the desires of people in rural areas differ from those living in urban areas. She also goes into how she felt the U.N. agency that offered support tried to take undue ownership of the campaign.Forotan tells me about how she sees the Taliban misusing Islam by rewriting the rules as it suits them, especially when it comes to issues like corporal and capital punishment.I ask Forotan about the criticisms she receives on social media about being a member of the so-called Kabul elite and about the photo taken of her, in which she's without a headscarf, while interviewing a member of the Taliban’s negotiating team in Doha recently.Farhad Darya's Salaam Afghanistan.

Om Podcasten

In February this year, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement that charted a path to ending nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan. If all goes according to plan—and there is much to suggest it won’t—all foreign forces will depart in spring, 2021. Meanwhile, long-awaited intra-Afghan negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are underway, once again in Doha.What will happen next? Will the Taliban uphold its side of the agreement with the U.S.? Will Trump even wait to find out? Will the Taliban concede to a ceasefire with the Afghan National Security Forces? And can President Ghani cling to power and steer the country toward peace? If the agreement fails, or indeed if it succeeds, how will history judge the United States for its role in Afghanistan? And what future will be left behind for Afghans who have variously thrived in, endured and raged against the well-intentioned occupation? As Afghanistan teeters, yet again, on a precipice between hope and despair, Afghanistan After America dissects the issues driving the decisions made in Washington D.C., Kabul, Doha and Quetta, and how they’re playing out on both sides of the battlefield, in the streets and inside homes, mosques and businesses across Afghanistan and beyond. Afghanistan After America draws from events of the past that continue to affect the present and explores Afghanistan’s rich and fraught history through some of those who’ve survived to tell their tales. Afghanistan After America is hosted by Andrew Quilty, an Australian journalist who has lived in Afghanistan since 2013 and reported from most of its provinces, collecting numerous accolades for his work along the way. Afghanistan After America is a place for conversations that go beyond the limits of mainstream media audiences. His guests are Afghans and outsiders from all walks of life with unique and confronting perspectives; they are leading analysts, thought-leaders, humanitarians, journalists, veterans and decision-makers from up and down the numerous tangled chains of command.