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Category Archive for: ‘Sunday Times’

I can make a difference – if I can stay alive

Mozhdah Jamalzadah, late twenties, Kabul’s answer to Oprah, on dodging bombs, fending off death threats and inspiring young Afghans Interview by Fariba Nawa June 19, 2011Sunday Times Magazine (UK) ***I wake to the dewy scent of winter and the aroma of meat stew and cumin rice wafting from my kitchen. I’m not an early riser. My eyes open about 10 …

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The ghosts of Pul-e-Charkhi

Since the Taliban were ousted, 86 mass graves have been uncovered in Afghanistan — their occupants the victims of torture and murder. Fariba Nawa went in search of her uncle — a professor who dared to teach

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How the West short-changed Afghanistan

We went to war to restore democracy and prosperity to Afghanistan, and spent billions on building new homes, hospitals and highways. But five years and thousands of lost lives later, everything is crumbling and the ferocious Taliban are back. Where did it all go wrong?

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Brides of the drug lords

Afghanistan’s opium trade is worth £14 billion a year. But when its dealers are shot or jailed, their daughters are sold as wives to settle their debts

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Brides of the drug lords (un-edited version)

By Fariba Nawa Aziza’s pale green eyes flashed. Her 12-year-old body shivered. She took two steps back toward the mud wall in the hallway. It was a dead end. “I’m not going! I’m not going!” she shouted at her mother. Haji Sufi, a 46-year-old opium farmer, waited for her inside the room, sitting cross-legged on a thin mat drinking black …

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Return of the native to a nation reborn

By Fariba Nawa July 14, 2002 London Sunday Times EDITOR’S NOTE: As an Afghan living in exile in America, Fariba Nawa was drawn back to her homeland as the Taliban were ousted. She found hope amid the ruins of Herat. I can hear the hope in my home town. The once-forbidden sounds echo through the city. In the bazaar, women’s …

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