Document details

Radio Free Afghanistan: A twenty-year odyssey for an independent voice in Kabul

New York: Harper Collins (2024), 307 pp.

ISBN 9780063299801 (hbk); 9780063299818 (pbk)

"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." (Publisher description)
PART I
1 Taliban raid, 3
2 Ariana Airlines, 19
3 Return to Kabul, 31
4 Building the radio, 43
5 Arman launch, 57
6 Cleaning up the city, 68
PART II
7 Europe, 2022, 83
8 TOLO TV, 96
9 Wajma, 108
10 Bad TV, 122
11 Karzai, 133
12 Corruption, 146
PART III
13 A Newsroom, 163
14 Tom, 175
15 Covering the Taliban, 189
16 Ghani, 200
17 Football, 212
18 Military target, 226
PART IV
19 Safia, 239
20 Afghan Star versus Herat, 252
21 Trauma, 264
22 Afghan stories, 279
23 Fall of Kabul, 296