Hamida Ghafour
Monday 2 April 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
In the last 25 years, Afghanistan has been the centre of invasion, conflict and is now at the heart of the global war on terror.
Journalist Hamida Ghafour and her family fled the capital, Kabul, in 1981 when the Russians invaded and over 20 years later, she returned as a correspondent for the Western media. She talks to Isabel Hilton about her new memoirs that explore the changes she found.
Playlist
Hamida Ghafour
In the last twenty five years Afghanistan has been at the eye of the political storm, a constant focus for conflict and now the global war on terror.
The journalist Hamida Ghafour and her family fled the capital, Kabul, in 1981 when the Russians invaded but twenty years later she returned as a foreign correspondent.
In Night Waves this evening she talks to Isabel Hilton about her homecoming and the memoir she's written based on that experience.
The Sleeping Buddha by Hamida Ghafour is published by Constable.
The Mark of Cain
There's another frontline reporter in the programme too.
Isabel will be asking Kate Adie what she makes of the new film by Tony Marchant, 'The Mark of Cain'.
This is a drama about a group of young British soldiers in Iraq desperate for action but constrained by the rules governing a peacekeeping force.
The Mark of Cain is broadcast on Thursday 5 April at 9.00pm on Channel 4.
Barbara Ehrenreich
We also talk to Barbara Ehrenreich. Her new book 'Dancing in the Streets' is a history of collective joy or as one reader put it " the history of people collecting together in groups and going wild, wearing masks, painting their faces, taking their clothes off and shouting".
Apparently this is a knack most of us have now lost. Barbara Ehrenreich will be explaining why she believes the disappearance of this Dionysian spirit is a terrible pity.
'Dancing in the Streets, A History of Collective Joy' by Barbara Ehrenreich is published by Granta
