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Speaker 1: Aska previously on Afghanistan. Daoud flees Afghanistan.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes I say maybe I am that I was the

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Speaker 2: first person to realize the situation is getting worse.

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Speaker 1: And Tolo TV is declared an official military target of

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Speaker 1: the Taliban.

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Speaker 2: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from now onwards does not

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Speaker 2: recognize Hollow TV as a media outlet.

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Speaker 3: It declares them to.

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Speaker 1: Be military targets which will be eliminated. When Tolo TV

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Speaker 1: CEO and founder Sad Musseni reads the fatwa, the Taliban

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Speaker 1: declaration that Sad's company and all of his employees are

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Speaker 1: now officially targets, he's terrified, but he's also furious. He's

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Speaker 1: not gonna let the Taliban bully him into hiding. This

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Speaker 1: isn't about losing his company. It's about the cultural revolution

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Speaker 1: taking place right now. Sad believes people should be able

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Speaker 1: to watch what they want to watch, to vote with

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Speaker 1: their remote controls, and he refuses to let this revolution

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Speaker 1: fall in the face of terrorists, so he starts ramping

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Speaker 1: up security.

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Speaker 3: We had all types of equipment that would detect bombs.

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Speaker 3: We had fully trained dogs, we had machines that could

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Speaker 3: detect messhole. If people pass through them.

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Speaker 1: And he makes sure most programs are filmed within the

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Speaker 1: walls of the Tolo compound.

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Speaker 3: And of course when they travel outside the compound, we

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Speaker 3: had armored vehicles that they would travel in, especially our judges.

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Speaker 1: Also, a lot of the staff carry weapons, including Sod,

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Speaker 1: not that it would make any difference, because well.

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Speaker 3: You know that most of us were not well versed

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Speaker 3: in terms of you know, keeping a gun, cleaning a gun,

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Speaker 3: holding it should be at the front or the back

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Speaker 3: of your trousers.

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Speaker 1: With all the security in place, Sod instructs his teams

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Speaker 1: to keep making their shows. He's doubling down, hoping that

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Speaker 1: the flood of comedy and music and soap operas will

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Speaker 1: keep the Taliban at bay. Of course, there's a simpler solution.

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Speaker 1: He could just shut down the Taliban's biggest target, Afghan

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Speaker 1: Star represents everything the Taliban hate, and if he just

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Speaker 1: canceled that show, he could probably make all the threats

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Speaker 1: go away. But Sod won't do it. Instead, he does

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Speaker 1: something he knows will enrage his enemies. He hires a

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Speaker 1: new judge, a pop star named Arianna. Said, we cannot

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Speaker 1: let them win.

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Speaker 2: We cannot let the darkness come over us again. We

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Speaker 2: have to fight back. We have to fight back with music.

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Speaker 2: That's how we can fight.

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Speaker 1: I'm John Legend and from Kaleidoscope and iHeart This is

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Speaker 1: Afghanistar Chapter one. Ariana. Arianna said was born in Afghanistan,

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Speaker 1: but she fled when she was eight years old after

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Speaker 1: a rocket landed in a tree right outside her house

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Speaker 1: during the civil war.

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Speaker 2: This noise was actually like still kind of clinging in

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Speaker 2: our ears, and there was smoke. Everyone was coughing, trying

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Speaker 2: to look for each other. I remember so many birds

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Speaker 2: had died and they had just been thrown on the

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Speaker 2: ground everywhere, and I was looking at these birds and

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Speaker 2: I was feeling like, oh my god, what a disaster.

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Speaker 2: My father said, Okay, there's no way for us to

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Speaker 2: be able to live in this country anymore.

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Speaker 1: She went from Afghanistan to Pakistan, to Switzerland, then Germany,

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Speaker 1: and finally she settled in London. As a tween, she

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Speaker 1: became obsessed with Beyonce and Destiny's Child, and she used

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Speaker 1: to spend all day in her bedroom singing into her hairbrush.

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Speaker 2: Do you know that song by j Loo? I used

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Speaker 2: to love that song and sing it all the time.

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Speaker 4: Case you have.

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Speaker 1: Mom soon She was singing at family gatherings and parties

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Speaker 1: and even making videos which she would upload to YouTube.

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Speaker 1: And it was those videos that Sod and his producers saw.

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Speaker 1: They caught her up and said, hey, we run the

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Speaker 1: biggest music TV station in Afghanistan. Why don't you come

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Speaker 1: to Cobble and do a concert.

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Speaker 2: It's like Sida see.

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Speaker 5: Hold my heart.

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Speaker 1: Ariana had always wanted to go home, much like Sad

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Speaker 1: and other Afghans who had been displaced by the war.

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Speaker 1: She'd longed for it, and so for the first time

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Speaker 1: since she was a kid. In twenty eleven, Arianna sets

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Speaker 1: foot in Cobble.

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Speaker 2: Q as the law mason eye easies.

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Speaker 1: She steps onto the stage wearing a floor linked turquoise dress,

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Speaker 1: and she looks around. The walls of the arena are black,

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Speaker 1: dotted with thousands of multicolored lights. They look like stars

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Speaker 1: in the night sky from a distance. Her eyes dropped

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Speaker 1: to the seat surrounding the stage. Every single one of

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Speaker 1: them is filled. She struts forward, her turquoise dressed shimmering.

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Speaker 1: Her black hair cascades down the small of her back.

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Speaker 1: It swishes back and forth as she begins to say.

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Speaker 2: I remember the crops the screams and the excitement of

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Speaker 2: the audience. They absolutely loved it.

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Speaker 1: Arianna flips her hair off her shoulder and begins to

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Speaker 1: dance around the stage, pointing her microphone at the audience.

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Speaker 2: I got the audience to sing along with me, and

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Speaker 2: I think that was the first time in the Afghan

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Speaker 2: music history that a single got the public, even including women,

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Speaker 2: to sing along.

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Speaker 1: They keep bursting up and out of their seats to

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Speaker 1: join in. They're holding hands and waving their arms in

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Speaker 1: the air, clapping to the beat and whistling. Over the

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Speaker 1: next few years, Ariana just keeps getting bigger, a full

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Speaker 1: on Afghan pop sensation. Her makeup is glamorous, her hair

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Speaker 1: is long and thick and straight, and she wears it uncovered.

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Speaker 1: Her outfits are big and sparkly. She has tattoos on

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Speaker 1: her hands, and her songs have made her famous, like

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Speaker 1: really really famous.

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Speaker 4: Tama Tama Ariana Said is a superstar in Afghanistan, Singing

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Speaker 4: in n Pashto and Dari dialects. Her voice not only

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Speaker 4: gives Afghani folkloric music a modern twist, but also carries

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Speaker 4: the aspirations of women seeking empowerment in a country that

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Speaker 4: was one under Taliban rule.

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Speaker 1: She has fans all over the world, one point nine

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Speaker 1: million followers on Instagram, and because she's so famous, she's.

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Speaker 4: Been targeted by Islamic cardliners and even had a bounty

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Speaker 4: on her head for not wearing a veil.

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Speaker 2: Outside this hotel where I'm performing, there were about, I

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Speaker 2: don't know two hundred and fifty to three hundred people

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Speaker 2: praying and screaming and shouting, calling my name death to Ariana.

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Speaker 2: She's Satan. She's bringing music to Afghanistan and we have

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Speaker 2: to stop her. And they were praying at the same time,

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Speaker 2: calling God and calling me infidel.

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Speaker 1: And that's when Sad approaches and he tells her that

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Speaker 1: he wants her to head up the next season of

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Speaker 1: Afghanistar as a judge. She isn't just the most visible

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Speaker 1: pop star in the country, she's all so the perfect

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Speaker 1: soldier to help him fight the Taliban. And just as

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Speaker 1: he predicted, Ariana's impact is immediate.

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Speaker 2: Every time I was on the show, their viewers would

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Speaker 2: automatically like go up by so many percentages. Because I

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Speaker 2: was a part of the show and because people love.

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Speaker 1: Me, female fans line up for hours for a chance

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Speaker 1: to talk to her. After tapings, They used to.

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Speaker 2: Tell me stories about their daily lives and how people

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Speaker 2: would look down upon them from there or let's say,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, on a bus, traveling to their home,

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Speaker 2: or being on the road on the streets.

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Speaker 1: Ariana begins to take female contestants under her wing, coaching

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Speaker 1: them to get further in the competition.

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Speaker 2: They used to be called names. People would not vote

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Speaker 2: for them to be on the show. They would make

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Speaker 2: fun of them. Their families would say you are not

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Speaker 2: my daughter.

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 2: It was extremely hard, extremely challenging for them.

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Speaker 1: But with Ariana behind them, two women get through to

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Speaker 1: the top twelve and one of them is even a rapper.

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Speaker 1: Afghan Star started with everyone auditioning using the same Afghan

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Speaker 1: Elvis songs. There was no new music. Dau Sadiki, the

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Speaker 1: first producer, couldn't even find a judge because there were

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Speaker 1: barely any singers in the country. But ten seasons later,

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Speaker 1: there are female rappers, gorgeous pop songs, famous pop stars.

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Speaker 3: It was a lightning rod all other ways. I mean,

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Speaker 3: one side of the coin was that we're getting lots

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Speaker 3: of viewers and we're giving people joy. But the other

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Speaker 3: side was that people just did not like us for

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Speaker 3: airing this.

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Speaker 1: Program, but Sad doesn't care. This is a revolution and

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Speaker 1: it will be televised. He won't back down, or so

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Speaker 1: he thinks. Thanks January twentieth, twenty sixteen, Sad is on

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Speaker 1: a business trip when he gets a call from an

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Speaker 1: employee in Cobble. He listens as this producer explains that

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Speaker 1: the news team is out reporting on a developing story.

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Speaker 1: A minibus full of people was targeted in a suicide

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Speaker 1: bomb attack. And then the producer pauses and Sad waits,

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Speaker 1: and he says something horrifying.

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Speaker 3: He said, I'm trying to get a hold of people

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Speaker 3: and Melon's strength. I think it may be our boss.

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Speaker 1: Chapter two, A Brave Girl. The morning of January twentieth,

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen had been like any other for Ghoul Mohammed Azizi.

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Speaker 1: His daughter Mahri Azizi was rushing after work Dona.

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Speaker 6: She was very kind hearted and I loved her so much.

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Speaker 6: She was not only a reason of pro for me,

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Speaker 6: but for my whole family.

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Speaker 1: Mary was talented. In addition to her mother tongue, she

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Speaker 1: could speak English and German and Dutch. She loved to

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Speaker 1: learn and would stay up until one am most knights

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Speaker 1: studying and working.

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Speaker 6: And she wanted to pursue and complete her education and

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Speaker 6: reach the highest you know, position wise that she is

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Speaker 6: dreaming of. And from that point of view, she wanted

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Speaker 6: to serve the country.

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Speaker 1: And what better way than taking part in Tolo TV's

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Speaker 1: revolution of entertainment. She was in her early twenties and

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Speaker 1: she was already a rising star on the staff of

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Speaker 1: Sad's company. But then the fatoi was issued by the

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Speaker 1: Taliban and the threats rolled in one after the other.

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Speaker 1: Corono and the work some shoot moan.

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Speaker 6: She told her mother that I feel I feel it

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Speaker 6: in my heart that I'm going to be martied in

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Speaker 6: the way that I'm going from job home and from

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Speaker 6: home to job.

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Speaker 1: That's right. She feels like she's going to become a martyr.

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Speaker 1: She tells her mom that she has a feeling she

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Speaker 1: thinks she's about to die.

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Speaker 6: I asked her that you shouldn't go if there are

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Speaker 6: threats against your job.

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Speaker 1: But she tells her father, no, I'm going in alongside

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Speaker 1: my colleagues. She was a brave girl, and so she

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Speaker 1: keeps working and on the evening of January twentieth, twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: her father's phone rings it's two of Mary's colleagues. They

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Speaker 1: sound panicked, upset. They tell him there's been an attack.

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Speaker 6: Unfortunately, the Mehry was also part of those people who

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Speaker 6: were there in the in the.

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Speaker 1: Best and she didn't survive. Gold Mohammed is in tears

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Speaker 1: as he tells this story. It keeps dropping his head

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Speaker 1: to wipe his tears with a handkerchief, but he doesn't

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Speaker 1: stop talking.

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Speaker 6: Rang A. It was a very painful moment, and her

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Speaker 6: mother was very said, and she was crying a lot.

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Speaker 6: She was beating herself up.

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Speaker 1: He rushes to the hospital to see her body.

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Speaker 6: There were a lot of family members that were so

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Speaker 6: crowd and everyone was running down and they didn't let

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Speaker 6: us initially to go inside and see.

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Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, it all hits him,

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Speaker 1: the stress, the panic, this immense sense of loss that

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Speaker 1: his baby girl is gone. His body shuts down and

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Speaker 1: he drops to the ground unconscious.

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Speaker 5: Chaos in the center of carbol after a carbombing. Attackers

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Speaker 5: I thought we have targeted the van of local TV

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Speaker 5: news station TOLO. At least employees are feared dead. There

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Speaker 5: have been no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack. However,

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Speaker 5: the Taliban said last year that they considered Tolo TV

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Speaker 5: a legitimate target.

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Speaker 1: While all of this is happening, Sad is on a

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Speaker 1: plane back to Kabo. He can't do anything until he lands,

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Speaker 1: so he just keeps refreshing his messages and his news app,

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Speaker 1: hoping for an update. Eventually, it's confirmed seven employees were

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Speaker 1: murdered in the attack.

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Speaker 3: Operating in a place like Afghanistan, we have been exposed

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Speaker 3: to attacks and friends and family getting killed. I stopped counting,

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Speaker 3: and twenty twelve or twenty thirteen, but but by then

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Speaker 3: I had lost something like forty close friends in the war.

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Speaker 3: But what was important, but this particular attack, was that

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Speaker 3: some of these kids were like our own children, and

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Speaker 3: you have this responsibility in terms of protecting them.

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Speaker 1: When Saad's plane finally touches down, he goes straight to

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Speaker 1: see the victim's families.

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Speaker 3: The environment is such a way, you have dozens of

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Speaker 3: families wailing as they identify their but you know, so

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Speaker 3: it's very traumatic experience for all and some, of course,

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Speaker 3: many were deeply angry with us and unhappy with us,

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Speaker 3: but that's, you know, expected.

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Speaker 1: He calls ghul Mohammad, Mary's father.

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Speaker 6: Plays it up and he promised that we will help

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Speaker 6: with anything that we can. He promises that they will

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Speaker 6: pay us up to ten years half of their salaries,

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Speaker 6: and along with that he promised that any family members

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Speaker 6: we will help and hire them.

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Speaker 1: Here.

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Speaker 3: Let's you feel guilty.

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Speaker 1: We still do.

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Speaker 3: Of course you do. You want to comfort them and

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Speaker 3: and condole them, but you understand, you have to understand

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Speaker 3: their anger.

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Speaker 1: That night, Sad lies in his bed, awake. The darkness

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Speaker 1: feels suffocating. He can't get the images out of his head,

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Speaker 1: and for the first time, he asks himself, is it

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Speaker 1: all worth it? This whole thing? I started this revolution,

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Speaker 1: this idea of spreading pop culture around Afghanistan and giving

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Speaker 1: people entertainment in the face of people actually dying kids,

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Speaker 1: We gave jobs, jobs, two being blown up coming home

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Speaker 1: from work. Is any of it worth it?

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Speaker 3: It's not a rhetorical question, it's a serious question. But

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Speaker 3: you have to prepare to carry through with your decision.

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Speaker 3: If you were together and shut down the operation.

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Speaker 1: Hey, it's John Legend. If you've been listening, you already

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Speaker 1: know that Afghan Star is a tale of resistance and hope.

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Speaker 1: For fifteen years, Afghan Star was a beacon. But when

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Speaker 1: the Taliban returned to power, they shut the show down

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Speaker 1: along with so many Afghan rights. They banned music, education

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Speaker 1: for girls and women, and they continue to clamp down

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Speaker 1: on everyone's freedoms. But there are ways to show your support.

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Speaker 1: We've teamed up with AWA Studios and their incredible graphic

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Speaker 1: artists to illustrate some of the most extraordinary moments in

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Speaker 1: this podcast. There is a unique print for each episode,

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Speaker 1: bringing to life powerful moments that are moving and inspiring.

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Speaker 1: And there's an unforgettable print based on a painting from

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Speaker 1: superstar artist Raza that represents the spirit of hope embodied

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Speaker 1: by the show. Art and music have the power to

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Speaker 1: uplift us all, and ordering a work for yourself or

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Speaker 1: as a gift help support Afghans. With every purchase will

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Speaker 1: be donating to the Nore Initiative, a nonprofit working to

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Speaker 1: ensure that every Afghan girl has access to education and opportunity.

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Speaker 1: For more information on our collaboration with AWA, the artworks

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Speaker 1: available to listeners, and to learn more about the Nere

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Speaker 1: Initiative's efforts to educate, support independent media, and transform lives

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Speaker 1: across the region, head to the link in our show

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Speaker 1: notes below. The next day, Sod gets ready to go

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Speaker 1: into the office. He's slower than usual, dragging his heels

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Speaker 1: because he's expecting the worst.

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Speaker 3: I expected half a dozen people to show up because

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Speaker 3: we've given the day off to everyone, because everyone has

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Speaker 3: been so traumatized.

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Speaker 1: Sod drives in, thinking about all the possible outcomes. Will

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Speaker 1: his staff quit, Will they disavow their work and severed

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Speaker 1: ties with TOLO after the bombing? Will anyone want to

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Speaker 1: work on Afghan Star? People are scared.

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Speaker 3: I mean, our judges are scared, Our contestants are scared.

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Speaker 1: We were scared. He knows he needs to talk to

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Speaker 1: his staff, whatever staff are left, but he doesn't know

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Speaker 1: what to say. He's still asking himself, should we shut

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Speaker 1: the whole thing down? He drives past the security guards

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Speaker 1: with their AK forty sevens standing outside. He parks and

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Speaker 1: goes in. He walks down the corridor until finally he

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Speaker 1: reaches the door to the newsroom, and that's when he

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Speaker 1: sees them.

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Speaker 3: The entire organization and hundreds of kids who were present that.

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Speaker 1: Morning, all standing there.

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Speaker 3: Standing outside on a particularly cold day.

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Speaker 1: Waiting waiting for him to speak. So he takes a

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Speaker 1: deep breath.

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Speaker 3: And I said, listen at the end of the day,

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Speaker 3: if it means that we save lives, I'd be happy

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Speaker 3: to shut down the operation. And for me, it's not

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Speaker 3: worth one life.

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Speaker 1: Whatever we're doing, it's not the words they want to hear.

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Speaker 1: It's clear they aren't going anywhere.

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Speaker 3: There was no fear, and as a matter of fact,

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Speaker 3: it became evident that there was a great deal of anger,

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Speaker 3: and their determination to carry on was for me very important.

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Speaker 1: Instead of being afraid, they are livid. For these young

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Speaker 1: producers and cameramen and anchors and gaffers, the losses are visceral.

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Speaker 1: In an instant, dreams were snatched, their friends and colleagues,

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Speaker 1: lives taken away, and the names are ringing through their heads.

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Speaker 1: Merry as easy, said Jawad Husseini, Zaynab mer Zaid, Mariam Ibrahimi,

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Speaker 1: Mohammad Hussein, Mohammad Ali, Mohammadi, Hossein Amiri. Asaad looks at

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Speaker 1: his little media army. He realizes they are so much

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Speaker 1: stronger than he'd ever known from the wreckage and the loss.

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Speaker 1: They need to know that what they've all built together

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Speaker 1: means something, that their friends' lives and work mean something.

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Speaker 1: They want to rip the Taliban apart and they are

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Speaker 1: standing here unified, waiting for orders to fight back.

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Speaker 2: There's no way Taliban would be able to gain power

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Speaker 2: and couple. My heart would never accept it.

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Speaker 1: That's next time. Afghanstar is a Kaleidoscope production in collaboration

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Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcasts, produced by samas dot Audio and hosted

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Speaker 1: by me John Legend from samas dot Audio. The series

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Speaker 1: producer is Mira Kumar. Our executive producers are Joe Sikes

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Speaker 1: and Dasha Listsina. Mix and sound designed by Jeff Imptman.

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Speaker 1: Story editing by Joe Sikes, with original composition by Kyle Murdoch.

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Speaker 1: Recording engineer Tim McClain. Chapter artwork by a WA Studios

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Speaker 1: from Kaleidoscope. The executive producers are Kate Osborne, Mengesh hattikadur

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Speaker 1: Oz Volisian and Costas Lenos from iHeart. The executive producers

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Speaker 1: are Ali Perry and Katrina Norval. Social Media by Darra

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Speaker 1: Patts and Vaheiny Shormi. Special thanks to Tom Freston, Lizzie Jacobs,

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Speaker 1: Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman, Nikki Etore, Bob Pittman, John Sikes,

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Speaker 1: con o Byrne Sad Mussenni and the Mossenni family, Matthew

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Speaker 1: Anderson and Axo Alonzo, and a special thanks to everyone

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Speaker 1: at MOBI group to give out but