Rahmatullah Amiri

09/11/20 • 100 min

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I first met Rahmatullah Amiri as he was being wheeled into an operating theatre in Kabul one night in August 2016.

A few hours earlier, Amiri was in an evening class at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) when three gunmen stormed the compound after breaching the front gate with a car bomb. 13 students, teachers and security staff were killed in the attack. 49 others were injured, including Amiri, who was shot three times.

Amiri survived the night and, after undergoing several surgeries, and completing his bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from AUAF, has gone on to become one of the most sought after researchers and analysts on matters of the Taliban. If you’ve read a major, public report on the Taliban in recent years, chances are Amiri had something to do with it.

Our conversation covers the nature of the Taliban’s relationship with al Qaeda and other international jihadist groups, the question of who the Taliban need to be negotiating with in order for a political settlement to be effective, the policies the group has and has not implemented, and how they’ve affected the Taliban’s appeal amongst the public.

We talk about how the idea of Sharia law is broadly misinterpreted and used, both as a justification for the Taliban's own authoritarian policies and as a propaganda tool against it, about issues Amiri believes the Taliban need to reconsider their positions on, the tremendous losses suffered by rural communities since 2001, and how the Taliban are relentless in their fight, not because they want an end to air strikes and night raids, but because they want to honour the sacrifices made and simply because they want foreign forces gone.

I first met Rahmatullah Amiri as he was being wheeled into an operating theatre in Kabul one night in August 2016.

Previous Episode

Mahpekay Sediqy

Mahpekay Sediqy is the deputy director at the Kabul Orthopaedic Organisation (KOO) in Afghanistan's capital and a bilateral amputee, herself.
Sediqy lost both legs to a mine while collecting firewood as a child during the Taliban's time in power in that late 1990s. She had never aspired to anything more than completing sixth class at school but, following her accident, Sediqy was taken under the wing of KOO's director at the time and has since gone on to complete a bachelor's degree in prosthetics and orthotics and helped hundreds of people with physical disabilities to walk, some for the first time.
Sediqy grew up in a rural district of Kabul called Qarabagh, which is, while close to Kabul City in proximity, a long way away in terms of the cultural modernisation that has characterised the Afghan capital since 2001. While the government nominally controls Qarabagh, the Taliban’s presence and influence there is famously strong.

In this episode, we talk about Sediqy’s struggle to come to terms with her horrific injury, and the new lease on life she found upon discovering the possibilities that lay before her; possibilities she’d never imagined, even before she lost her legs.

We also talk about the cultural issues and the daily barrage of harassment as she’s had to confront and endure as she's progressed through life, both personally and professionally.

Next Episode

Covering the War, with Saad Mohseni

Saad Mohseni is one of Afghanistan’s most influential businesspeople, and the co-founder of it’s most popular television network, TOLO TV.

He is the son of an Afghan diplomat who, soon after the 1979 Soviet invasion, sought political asylum in Australia. There, he worked in finance until the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, when he returned to Kabul with his brothers in search of business opportunities.

The three brothers founded MOBY Group in 2003, and within a couple of years had established Arman FM, Afghanistan’s first privately owned radio station, a revelation in a country where music and independent news had been banned under the Taliban regime, and by far it’s most popular radio show today.

Next, came TOLO TV, which produced its 15th season of the hit music talent show Afghan Star this year. The Pashto language Lemar TV came in 2006 and then, in 2010, TOLO News, Afghanistan’s first 24 hour television news network and, again, the country's most popular today.

I spoke with Mohseni the same day intra-Afghan talks were getting underway in Doha, and asked him whether he still felt, as he said a year ago, whether the US had thrown Afghanistan under a bus in an effort to end its military involvement in the country.

We talked about his lack of confidence in the team negotiating on behalf of the Afghan government, and his belief that at least a minimal U.S. military presence should remain in the country to ensure agreements between all parties are adhered to and, just as importantly, to keep Afghanistan’s neighbours in check.

Mohseni talks about the slow creep of progress since 2001, how he sees hope for the future in former hardline Taliban who’ve come off the battlefield into modern lives in Kabul and now own TV sets and watch Turkish soap-operas in the evening.

We discuss corruption and striking a balance between retaining Afghan culture while pushing for progress through his efforts to encourage critical thinking and integrating women into public life and the economy.

And, finally, we talk about the inherent practical and ethical difficulties faced by the media in an environment where one side has declared it a legitimate military target, and about the future of the media industry in Afghanistan at a time when the international funding that props it up is beginning to disappear.

Click here to view the TOLO News documentary Daesh in Afghanistan.