
Radio Free Afghanistan
A Twenty-Year Odyssey for an Independent Voice in Kabul
- 336 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Radio Free Afghanistan
A Twenty-Year Odyssey for an Independent Voice in Kabul
About this book
From Time 100 honoree Saad Mohseni, the deeply moving and surprising story of the attempt to build a truly independent media company in contemporary Afghanistan.
Saad Mohseni, chairman and CEO of Moby Group, Afghanistan’s largest media company, charts a twenty-year effort to bring a free press to his country after years of Taliban rule, and how that effort persists even after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
In the heady early days of the American occupation, Mohseni returns to Kabul which he had last seen as a child before the Soviet invasion. Casting about for ways to be involved in the dawn of a new Afghanistan, Mohseni makes what seems like a quixotic decision to leave the comforts of a career in international banking to start a Kabul radio station with his three siblings. This unlikely venture quickly blossoms into a burgeoning television empire, bringing Mohseni and his family and employees into sometimes uncomfortable contact with everyone who has a stake in the country—from the government of Hamid Karzai to White House officials. Moreover, their radio and television networks soon become a necessary beacon for millions of Afghans, who rely on them not just for independent news but for joyful pleasures like soap operas and Afghan Star, a beloved national singing competition in a country whose previous rulers had banned (and would again ban) music.
Mohseni’s position at Moby affords him unique insights into this extraordinary yet troubled country, the youngest in the world outside of Sub-Saharan Africa, and his powerful account captures the spirit and resilience of the Afghan people—notably the hundreds of men and women still working in Moby's Kabul office today, who, once again under Taliban rule, create programs, report the news, and educate the public.
Radio Free Afghanistan is a stunning, vibrant portrait of a nation in turmoil, poised between despair and hope.
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Information
Table of contents
- Dedication
- Contents
- Part I
- Chapter 1: Taliban Raid
- Chapter 2: Ariana Airlines
- Chapter 3: Return to Kabul
- Chapter 4: Building the Radio
- Chapter 5: Arman Launch
- Chapter 6: Cleaning Up the City
- Part II
- Chapter 7: Europe, 2022
- Chapter 8: TOLO TV
- Chapter 9: Wajma
- Chapter 10: Bad TV
- Chapter 11: Karzai
- Chapter 12: Corruption
- Part III
- Chapter 13: A Newsroom
- Chapter 14: Tom
- Chapter 15: Covering the Taliban
- Chapter 16: Ghani
- Chapter 17: Football
- Chapter 18: Military Target
- Part IV
- Chapter 19: Safia
- Chapter 20: Afghan Star versus Herat
- Chapter 21: Trauma
- Chapter 22: Afghan Stories
- Chapter 23: Fall of Kabul
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- About the Coauthor
- Copyright
- About the Publisher