Arghand, a female anchor of TOLO, an Afghan news network, interviewed a senior Taliban representative on air. The interview got news all over the world.
Two days later, Arghand did so again, interviewing Malala Yousafzai, the activist who survived a Taliban assassination attempt, in what TOLO described as the first time Yousafzai was interviewed on Afghan television.
Arghand was opening a trail, but his work has been suspended. He decided to leave Afghanistan, citing the dangers faced by so many ordinary journalists and Afghans.
Arghand corresponded with CNN Business via WhatsApp and recounted the experience of the past two weeks.
Ultimately, he said, “I left the country because, like millions of people, I am afraid of the Taliban.”
Saad Mohseni, owner of TOLO, said the Arghand case is emblematic of the situation in Afghanistan.
“Almost all of our well-known journalists and journalists have left,” Mohseni said on Sunday on reliable CNN sources. “We’ve been working like crazy to replace them with new people.”
“We have the double challenge of getting people out [because they feel unsafe] and keep the operation going, ”he added.
Arghand is 24 years old. She told CNN that she decided to become a ninth-grade journalist after one of her teachers let her come to the front of the room and read the news “as if it were the anchor of television,” she said.
Arghand studied journalism at Kabul University for four years. She worked at various news agencies and radio stations for brief periods of time and then joined TOLONews as a presenter earlier this year.
“I worked there for a month and 20 days, then the Taliban came,” he recalled.
Arghand said the interview was difficult, “but I did it for Afghan women.”
“I said to myself, ‘One of us has to start … If we stay in our houses or we don’t go to our offices, they’ll say the ladies don’t want to work,’ but I said, ‘Start working,'” he said. I said to the Taliban member, “We want our rights. We want to work. We want – we have to – be in society. That is our right.”
Every day that passed, new stories of intimidation by the Taliban aimed at the media appeared.
Two days after interviewing Yousafzai, Arghand contacted the activist for help. On Tuesday he embarked on an evacuation flight of the Qatar Air Force with several family members.
He said he hopes to return: “If the Taliban do what they said, what they promised, and the situation improves, and I know I am safe and there is no threat to me, I will return to my country and work for my country. For my people “.