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The Documentary: Afghanistan and me

Afghanistan and me

18/09/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Afghanistan and me

Thirty years of Afghan’s tumultuous history, told through one woman’s experience

Thirty years of Afghan’s tumultuous history, told through one woman’s experience.

As Afghanistan reaches a turning point with American troops leaving the country, BBC Pashto presenter Sana Safi tells the story of how her own life has been intertwined with the fate of her country. She tells the story of what it was like for a child to survive in a country caught between the crosshairs of geopolitical conflict, of surviving religious fundamentalism, of growing up in a country without music or books.

She describes how violence and conflict forced her family to move from Kandahar to Helmand, only to find themselves caught in the crossfire of a gun battle. How under Taliban rule she effectively became a prisoner in her own home. How the continuing decades of conflict brought tragedy to her own family – and how she could only find security by moving to the UK, where she suffered the pain of separation from her family and homeland. As she says, for those born in Afghanistan in the 1980s, hers is a far from unusual story.

(Photo: BBC presenter Sana Safi)

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