Devika Desai
© Provided by National Post
The video shows two armed militants standing behind the host as he delivers his on-air broadcast.
Armed Taliban militants stormed an Afghan television news station and watched over the host during an on-air broadcast.
A video, shared by BBC host Yalda Hakim on Twitter Aug. 29, shows two armed militants standing behind the host as he reads the news and conducts a debate during his programme ‘Pardaz’ on Peace Studio, an Afghan TV network.
“This is what a political debate now looks like on Afghan TV, Taliban foot soldiers watching over the host,” Hakim explained in her caption. “The presenter talks about the collapse of the Ghani govt & says the Islamic Emirate says the Afghan people should not to be afraid.”
“Surreal,” she wrote.
A separate photo posted by Zaki Daryabi, the editor-in-chief of Etilaatroz, an Afghan investigative newspaper, shows the host sitting next to a group of armed Taliban militants, apparently engaging them in conversation on-air.
Armed Taliban militants stormed an Afghan television news station and watched over the host during an on-air broadcast.
A video, shared by BBC host Yalda Hakim on Twitter Aug. 29, shows two armed militants standing behind the host as he reads the news and conducts a debate during his programme ‘Pardaz’ on Peace Studio, an Afghan TV network.
“Surreal,” she wrote.
A separate photo posted by Zaki Daryabi, the editor-in-chief of Etilaatroz, an Afghan investigative newspaper, shows the host sitting next to a group of armed Taliban militants, apparently engaging them in conversation on-air.
“This is what @Etilaatroz can’t accept. If so, we will stop our work,” tweeted Daryabi, who last year won Transparency International’s Anti-Corruption 2020 Award.
Hakim’s video has since gone viral on Twitter, with more than 800,000 views since being posted and over 3,000 retweets.
Despite the Taliban’s assurances of a moderate rule that ensures freedom for its women and journalists, more accounts of their brutality and control on the ground have emerged everyday.
The video follows after Afghan female journalist Beheshta Arghand said she fled the country with her family, after being the first female journalist to interview the Taliban on live television.
She told Reuters that two days after Kabul had fallen into the control of the Taliban, militants had showed up at her television studio, unannounced, asking to be interviewed.
“I was shocked, I lost my control … I said to myself that maybe they came to ask why did I come to the studio,” she said.
Days after the interview, she found out that the Taliban had told local media to stop talking about their takeover and their rule. They ordered her employer to enforce the use of a hijab — a scarf closely covering women’s heads while leaving their face uncovered — and banned female anchor at television stations.
With the help of her activist contact, Malala Yousafzai, she fled the country with her family to Qatar.
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