Media
Published by BBC News
A love letter to Kabul
This summer’s Taliban takeover was a seismic moment for Kabul. Those who call this city their own wonder if life has changed forever. Much of what made Kabul special is now a cultural battlefield – evocative street murals have been painted over with Islamic verses, girls’ secondary schools have been shut, stirring music no longer courses through shops and alleys.
CBC NEWS
Women in Afghanistan are worried for their safety and human rights
With loved ones left stranded and an economy in tatters, the time to talk to the Taliban is now, say some.
Thousands of delicate purple blooms sit bathed in sunlight against a background of towering jagged slopes in the Afghan province of Herat, their distinct fragrance gently sweetening the air as they await their fate
Inside, each contains three fragile red threads, carefully hand-plucked to produce the world’s most expensive spice: saffron.
But this year, as harvest season approaches, the fate of the flowers, picked almost exclusively by women farmers, is in the hands of the Taliban, who will decide if they will be allowed to gather the blooms, if they’ll be picked at all or left to rot.
For Nazaneen Qauomi, it’s as if the blossoms themselves symbolize the future not only for the women but for all of Afghanistan.
Refugees are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, with the same hopes and ambitions as us—except that a twist of fate has bound their lives to a global refugee crisis on an unprecedented scale.
Khaled Hosseini
GLOBAL NEWS
Inside the Kabul safe houses where Afghans wait to be evacuated to Canada
From the street, it looks like just another Kabul compound, but that’s the point. The families inside don’t want to be found. They’re hiding from the Taliban who patrol the city in their pickups.
Occupied by former employees of Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan, the compound is self-contained so they don’t have to go out, where they risk getting stopped and questioned.
Main Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay