Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,21 Aug 2021,23 mins

Afghanistan: How did we get here?

From Our Own Correspondent

Available for over a year

After the Taliban’s lightning-fast takeover of Afghanistan, our correspondent searches his memory for clues as to how the US’s twenty-year mission there could have ended like this. In India, Chloe Hadjimatheou introduces us to some of the thousands of people who’ve been declared dead but are trying to convince the world they are still alive. In Kenya, there’s dancing and tears as Vivienne Nunis watches members of the Shona community receive their first national ID cards after years of campaigning for citizenship. And the power of learning a language; LIija Zhang shares her journey from missile factory worker in China to internationally published writer. (Image: Taliban fighter stands guard outside the Green Zone in Kabul, Afghanistan, 17 August 2021. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency)

Programme Website
More episodes