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Episode details

World Service,20 Jul 2015,55 mins

Afghan Soldier Who Saved Parliament

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Available for over a year

Esa Khan, the 28-year-old Afghan soldier who single-handedly took on a group of Taliban militants who attempted to storm Kabul's parliament last month. He was honoured for his actions by President Ashraf Ghani and posters of him now hang in public places. However, Esa was in the news again last week after being arrested and released for his involvement in a car crash in which a man was killed. But for many Afghans, he remains a national hero. He tells Jo Fidgen about the moment the Taliban bomb exploded. Wilko Johnson, the British guitarist of the group Dr Feelgood, explains how he was told he had terminal cancer, went on tour, only to discover that he had been given the wrong diagnosis. Igor Shulinsky, on setting up Moscow's first nightclub after the fall of the Soviet Union, and how his magazine Ptyuch came to dominate 1990s Russian youth culture. Sara Escobar is a Mexican documentary maker and photographer whose work includes teenage girls' coming of age party, and the young men and women who join Mexico's army. (Photo: Esa Khan. Credit: Getty Images)

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