“Clarin has helped get five of her former employees and their families into the U.S. since 2017, while her wife has helped them rebuild their lives in America.”
Afghanistan
Posted inEditor's Pick
Hathi
“Millions suffered through terror and upheaval in the turbulent years following the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. One of them was a baby elephant from India.”
Posted inCurrent Events, Highlight, Nonfiction, Podcasts, Writing
Trapped in Limbo Down Under
In Australia, some 30,000 people live in a state of legal uncertainty crafted by politicians.
Posted inFeature, Story
The Reluctant Propagandist
Massood Sanjer, Afghanistan’s most famous radio host, had an unlikely start to his career as a beacon of free speech. Under the Taliban rule, his voice used to carry Taliban propaganda all over the world.
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
Where the Men are Scarier than the Minefield on the Mountain
“No longer should women feel weak.”
Posted inCurrent Events, Highlight, Quotes
Exile, Compounded
“His brother, he assumed, was in the island’s detention facility, waiting to be sent to Athens with hundreds of other migrants. Days turned into weeks. Every time Javed tried Masood’s phone, the call went straight to voicemail. After a month passed with no word, it dawned on Javed that his brother was missing.”
Posted inBooks, Current Events, Nonfiction, Story
The Targeting and Killing of a Helmandi Combatant
I interviewed everyone present in the tactical operations center during a routine airstrike in Helmand Province. Without exception they believe themselves to be doing the right thing.
Posted inHighlight, History, Nonfiction, Quotes
War, What is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing
“Across these years, hundreds of thousands of young men and women signed on in good faith and served in the lower and middle ranks. They did not make policy. They lived within it.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Story
A Music So Beautiful the Birds Fell from the Trees
How two exiled Sufi musicians returned to make traditional music in postwar Kabul, Afghanistan.
Posted inFood, Nonfiction, Story
The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul: Where Tradition Trumps Rockets
For over 70 years, Bacha Broot, located in the center of the Old City of Kabul, has been serving chainaki — savory lamb stew — despite Soviet occupation, civil war, and the Taliban.