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Speaker 1: For a moment. Just before the spotlight hits, the crowd

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Speaker 1: goes silent. They've been waiting for Satara Hussein Zada to

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Speaker 1: sing her final song, but as she walks out onto

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Speaker 1: the stage, dressed head to toe in a long sleeved,

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Speaker 1: pale lime green outfit, the crowd goes wild. She's standing

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Speaker 1: on the biggest platform in the country, with cameras pointing

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Speaker 1: at her from every angle. Tonight, millions of viewers across

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Speaker 1: Afghanistan have tuned in to Afghanistar to see who's been

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Speaker 1: a limonated, and she isn't going to waste the opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Satara looks down at the microphone tightly gripped in her fist,

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Speaker 1: at the white, crinkled stage beneath her feet. In that moment,

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Speaker 1: she isn't thinking about her family back home or everything

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Speaker 1: she's sacrificed to perform here. She isn't thinking about her

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Speaker 1: safety or her reputation. Instead, as the first beats pulse

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Speaker 1: from the speakers, she thinks to herself, Tonight, I can

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Speaker 1: either fade away into the murky depths of talent show history,

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Speaker 1: or I can give them something to remember. Her voice

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Speaker 1: cries out to the audience, they clapped. They but as

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Speaker 1: the song goes on, something strange starts happening. The clapping

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Speaker 1: begins to die down, whispers grow.

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Speaker 2: I remember looking at the faces of the judges, looking

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Speaker 2: at the face of audience sitting there. They were, they were,

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Speaker 2: they were shocked.

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Speaker 1: Producer Habib Ami keeps looking back and forth between Satara

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Speaker 1: and the audience.

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Speaker 2: They didn't believe this is happening. This is for the

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Speaker 2: first time after the Tolerant that the woman is singing

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Speaker 2: and dancing on the stage.

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Speaker 1: That's right. The thing that Satara was doing, the thing

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Speaker 1: that shocked the audience was dancing. Habib realizes just how

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Speaker 1: dangerous this is. There are still a lot of Afghans

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Speaker 1: who don't think women should be on TV, definitely not

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Speaker 1: dancing on stage. They think it's shameful haram, a sacrilege

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Speaker 1: punishable by death.

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Speaker 2: Are we allowed to burchaste?

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Speaker 1: And so Habib has a decision to make because if

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Speaker 1: this hits the air, it will not only put Satara's

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Speaker 1: life in danger, it could also end afghanstar. Previously, the

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Speaker 1: show is a revolution.

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Speaker 3: Billions of dollars were spent to have elections in Avyonistan,

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Speaker 3: but we were the people who taught afghanst how to

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Speaker 3: be part of a democratic process.

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Speaker 1: And it changes the lives of everyone involved.

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Speaker 3: I was feeling too good on this stage, you know, like,

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Speaker 3: shall keep your flying right now You're free completely, No

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Speaker 3: one is there to destroy you.

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

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Speaker 1: is Afghan Star Chapter one. The protege Habib Amri is

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Speaker 1: in his early thirties. Black rimmed glasses sit at the

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Speaker 1: top of his nose, framing his eyes, which are permanently

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Speaker 1: creased at the edges from smiling. Habib lives in Germany

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Speaker 1: now and he can't go back to Afghanistan because of

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Speaker 1: his work on Afghan Star.

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Speaker 2: Okay, are you recording? Yes, yes, it's very different now.

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Speaker 2: It's also very emotional for me to talk about because

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Speaker 2: I am very angry now that we're looking at the

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Speaker 2: Karen situation of Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: Habib was born in the nineties and brought up in Iran.

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Speaker 1: He returned to kabl in two thousand and four as

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Speaker 1: a teenager. He was part of a new generation of Afghans,

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Speaker 1: young people who had no memory of the Taliban, and

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Speaker 1: so when he turned seventeen, he did what ordinary seventeen

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Speaker 1: year olds do. He tried to figure out what to

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Speaker 1: do with his life.

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Speaker 2: I was trying to decide if I want to study,

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Speaker 2: go to university and what do I want to study.

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Speaker 2: But also I was looking for opportunities. I was looking

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Speaker 2: for something interesting to do.

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Speaker 1: And luckily for Habib, Cabble in two thousand and four

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Speaker 1: was a good place to make a name for yourself.

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Speaker 1: There's investment in infrastructure. American taxpayers will spend about sixteen

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Speaker 1: billion dollars this year rebuilding Afghanistan. New businesses and storefronts

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Speaker 1: are opening up. Beauty salons have cropped up all over

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Speaker 1: the city. Finally, women can openly work at what they've

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Speaker 1: been doing in secret. Under the Taliband. The first mobile

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Speaker 1: phone network is launched is Excellency ham A Cars.

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Speaker 3: I made the first mobile phone call.

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Speaker 1: It's a symbolic representation of the introduction of modern technology

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Speaker 1: and telecommunications into the country. And the kids are all

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Speaker 1: talking about a show called Afghan Star and the company

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Speaker 1: that makes it Tolo TV.

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Speaker 2: I think I was very fascinated by TV. I was

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Speaker 2: very fascinated by Tulu TV, the kind of programming they

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Speaker 2: were producing at that time. So Tulu was very unique.

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Speaker 1: It's a new TV station for a new Afghanistan.

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Speaker 2: Yang moderators presenters presenting music in a very different way.

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Speaker 1: So Habib sends in his resume and gets hired to

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Speaker 1: help Daou Sadiki on season one of Afghan Star, and

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Speaker 1: despite being the youngest member of the team, Habib made

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Speaker 1: himself essential.

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Speaker 3: He became the man of logistics, hotels and our rental

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Speaker 3: cars do the paperwork.

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Speaker 1: Basically, Habib takes over all the crap jobs and he

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Speaker 1: does it with a smile, even when Daoud is shouting,

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Speaker 1: even when everything is going wrong, because he can tell

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Speaker 1: there's something special about this show.

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Speaker 2: I felt the power of Afghanistan and what it can do,

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Speaker 2: and how impactful this show was on the society. I

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Speaker 2: was trying to use this power to bring changes.

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Speaker 1: Habib wants to use Afghanistan to influence the country, to

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Speaker 1: spread the modern values of his generation and chip away

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Speaker 1: at the Taliban's legacy. Daoud wants exactly the same thing,

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Speaker 1: and he starts to see Habib is kind of his protege.

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Speaker 1: He promotes him and so by season three, Habib is

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Speaker 1: a producer and together they come up with a plan

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Speaker 1: to make this season the boldest season yet to push

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Speaker 1: Afghanistar to its limits. They want the show to be bigger, better.

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Speaker 2: I had the feeling that I can work very open

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Speaker 2: and take risks, try new ideas.

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Speaker 1: They want to make it more slick.

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Speaker 2: Let's diy he figured out how to put moving lights

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Speaker 2: and changing LEDs inside these states.

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Speaker 1: They sketch out fancier stages and book bigger venues.

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Speaker 2: We had a bigger location, we had more audience.

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Speaker 1: But it's not just the look they want to change.

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Speaker 1: It's also who comes on the show. Up to this point,

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Speaker 1: a lot of the contestants had been from in and

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Speaker 1: around Cobble. Now they want to get everyone everywhere involved.

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Speaker 2: For a country like Afghanistan with conservative people, the religious

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Speaker 2: leaders have very very powerful impact on this society.

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Speaker 1: They know there are people who rail against the the

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Speaker 1: ones who believe that women shouldn't sing on stage and

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Speaker 1: that Afghan Star is too western and it's corrupting the youth.

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Speaker 2: We were fighting against all the challenges, but somehow we

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Speaker 2: always ended up producing a good show and there was

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Speaker 2: always a solution.

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Speaker 1: It's ambitious, but they decide to take their show on

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Speaker 1: the road from Jalalabad with its Rawal heat surrounded by

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Speaker 1: mountains to the valley of Herat, the city filled with

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Speaker 1: art that could rival the Renaissance. They hold auditions and

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Speaker 1: to their surprise, people turn up in the thousands, and

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Speaker 1: women are showing up too, including one contestant who only

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Speaker 1: sang in Pashta.

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Speaker 2: We had Lima from Kandahar, the birthplace of Taliban singing.

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Speaker 1: Daoud and Habib can't believe what they're seeing.

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Speaker 2: We know that the highest number of votes were from

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Speaker 2: this Pashtu speaking areas of the country. This is the

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Speaker 2: most conservative parts of the country.

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Speaker 1: For all the saber rattling from these regions and supposed

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Speaker 1: anger over the show, conservative Afghans are voting. They're watching

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Speaker 1: Afghan Star and actually voting, and the show is not

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Speaker 1: just getting them to vote, it's also starting to bridge

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Speaker 1: ethnic divides.

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Speaker 2: A Pashtun who was never listening to Hazara songs was

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Speaker 2: listening to Hazora contestant because it was not about where

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Speaker 2: they come from. It was not about their ethnicity anymore,

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Speaker 2: but it was about the performance.

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Speaker 1: These ethnic groups, Huzaras and Pastuns are usually at odds

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Speaker 1: for Afghans. Your ethnic identity and loyalty comes before anything else,

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Speaker 1: and the divisions can be fractious, so seeing them singing

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Speaker 1: each other's songs and sharing in another group's culture, it's

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Speaker 1: a huge deal.

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Speaker 2: They were talking to each other, they were supporting each other,

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Speaker 2: they were printing posters, they were printing billboards.

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Speaker 1: To Daoud and Habib, and really, anyone watching the show

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Speaker 1: felt like it was bringing people together.

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Speaker 2: This is a big change. I think we changed the people.

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Speaker 2: They look at Afghanistan as a whole and not as

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Speaker 2: different parts.

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Speaker 3: The impact was so big. Somehow I enjoyed this, and

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Speaker 3: I was a little bit scared too.

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Speaker 1: It felt like it was all moving in the right

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Speaker 1: direction until Satara started to dance. Hey, it's John Legend.

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Speaker 1: If you've been listening, you already know that Afghanistar is

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Speaker 1: a tale of resistance and hope. For fifteen years, Afghan

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Speaker 1: Star was a beacon, but when the Taliban returned to power,

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Speaker 1: they shut the show down along with so many Afghan rights.

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Speaker 1: They band music education for girls and women, and they

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Speaker 1: continue to clamp down on everyone's freedoms. But there are

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Speaker 1: ways to show your support. We've teamed up with a

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Speaker 1: WA Studios and their incredible graphic artists to illustrate some

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Speaker 1: of the most extraordinary moments in this podcast. There is

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Speaker 1: a unique print for each episode, bringing to life powerful

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Speaker 1: moments that are moving and inspiring, and there's an unforgettable

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Speaker 1: print based on a painting from Superstar artist Raza that

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Speaker 1: represents the spirit of hope embodied by the show. Art

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Speaker 1: and music have the power to uplift us all and

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Speaker 1: ordering a work for yourself or as again help support Afghans.

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Speaker 1: With every purchase, we'll be donating to the Neor Initiative,

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Speaker 1: a nonprofit working to ensure that every Afghan girl has

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Speaker 1: access to education and opportunity. For more information on our

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Speaker 1: collaboration with AWA, the artworks available to listeners, and to

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Speaker 1: learn more about the Neor Initiative's efforts to educate, support

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Speaker 1: independent media, and transform lives across the region, head to

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Speaker 1: the link in our show notes below, Chapter two the decision.

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Speaker 1: Up until that point, women had never made it very

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Speaker 1: far in Afghan Star. The season one and season two

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Speaker 1: winners were both male, as were the runners up, But

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Speaker 1: this season two women make it into the top ten.

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Speaker 1: There's Lima from Condahar, the very conservative place of the Taliban,

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Speaker 1: and there's Satara Hussein Zana from the equally conservative city

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Speaker 1: of hrat. This is Satara speaking in a documentary filmed

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Speaker 1: at the time. She says what she thinks. She laughs constantly,

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Speaker 1: and she knows what she wants in life, in a

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Speaker 1: future husband, and in her career. She knows what's expected

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Speaker 1: of a woman in Afghanistan, and she knows that a

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Speaker 1: lot of conservative people think she shouldn't be on the show,

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Speaker 1: but she doesn't care. All she wants to do is

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Speaker 1: win Afghanistar and tour the world in sparkly dresses, performing familions.

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Speaker 1: Like Habib, Satara is part of the younger generation in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: She's not interested in what people are thinking back home,

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Speaker 1: and she's itching for society to progress faster than it is.

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Speaker 1: Afghanistar is her ticket out. Since auditioning, Satara has been

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Speaker 1: voted through every round of the show. From the thousands,

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Speaker 1: she's made it to the top eight, and that's where

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Speaker 1: we find her tonight.

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Speaker 3: Thought I happened.

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Speaker 1: The lights dim? The results are in? How many the

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Speaker 1: safe contestants are announced? First, they leave the stage one

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Speaker 1: by one. It's just Satara and one man laughed, and

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Speaker 1: then Daou tells her the news. She's out. Her eyes

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Speaker 1: glaze over. She stares right ahead forces half a smile.

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Speaker 1: Now she's on the stage alone, she thinks to herself,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to be forgotten. This can't be the end,

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Speaker 1: and so she makes a decision to dance. If you

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Speaker 1: pull up the video, you'll see it's barely a dance.

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Speaker 1: There's a little swaying, some strutting around stage, gesturing of hands.

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Speaker 1: It's also tang when in Afghanistan this is unthinkable, and

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Speaker 1: Habib is sweating. What do we do?

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Speaker 2: Do we keep the cameras on the audience, or do

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Speaker 2: we do we do close shots? Or do be to

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Speaker 2: be sure the judge.

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Speaker 1: Is Habib's reputation and the future of the show are

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Speaker 1: resting on him making the right decision. But as he's

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Speaker 1: trying to do damage control, something happens on stage that

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Speaker 1: makes everything worse. Worse for Habibi, worse for Satara, worse

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Speaker 1: for everyone. Habib watches as the pale green scarf covering

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Speaker 1: Satara's head slips down, leaving her hair exposed. Habib freezes.

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Speaker 1: He waits for her to lift the scarf back up

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Speaker 1: to cover her hair again, but she doesn't. The scarf

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Speaker 1: hangs limp over her shoulders, and the audience's jaws hang open.

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Speaker 1: Satara is still dancing as if nothing's wrong. Maybe she

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Speaker 1: hasn't noticed, maybe she doesn't care. But Habib has to

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Speaker 1: do something now.

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Speaker 2: I was thinking about, Okay.

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Speaker 4: What do we do?

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Speaker 1: He knows he can't stop the live audience from seeing

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Speaker 1: the performance, but there's a two hour delay before the

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Speaker 1: show is broadcast across the country. Maybe he could edit

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Speaker 1: the performance out. He starts running around trying to find

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Speaker 1: someone to help, and then he sees the big boss,

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Speaker 1: the head of TOLO, Sad Mussni, and he flags him

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Speaker 1: down and Sad tells him keep the performance in the show.

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Speaker 1: If they want to change Afghanistan, they can't shy away

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Speaker 1: from broadcasting this. It's a risk. They have to tell.

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Speaker 1: Chapter three aftermath. The next day, Habib checks the headlines,

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Speaker 1: He scans the radio, and starts scouring social media, but

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Speaker 1: he already knows what everyone is talking about. Satara.

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Speaker 2: I was looking at the comments in social media and

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Speaker 2: there were people actually supporting the Taliban and they were saying,

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Speaker 2: this is happening because Tulu is bringing the Western culture

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Speaker 2: to us and we don't want that, and their anti

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Speaker 2: Islam or that blah blah.

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Speaker 1: Satara's friend Ahmed Nazami reads the comments with dread in

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Speaker 1: his stomach.

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Speaker 4: There was religious people that even they're talking on the

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Speaker 4: mosque against her that did you see that Afghan star?

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Speaker 4: Did you see that girl? She danced in front of

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Speaker 4: the men.

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Speaker 1: They think her dancing is indecent, shameful, provocative.

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Speaker 3: I was like shocked. We are playing the Bollywood movies

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Speaker 3: every night, loss of ladies are dancing. Why there's no

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Speaker 3: reaction for that, Like she didn't do anything crazy, but

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Speaker 3: the reaction was so big.

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Speaker 1: They're taking her performance so personally, and that would realizes why.

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Speaker 3: Basically, at the mind of people, she represented a common

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Speaker 3: guir of Cobble Street or any city in Avonstan, a

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Speaker 3: daughter of anyone.

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Speaker 1: Satara is the girl next door. She's like a daughter

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Speaker 1: to them, or a sister or a wife. But right

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Speaker 1: now she represents something that they don't want in their homes, defiance.

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Speaker 3: People kind of reacted that like this idea of freedom

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Speaker 3: or in our streets and our households.

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Speaker 1: Everyone hopes it will blow over, but the Satara storyline

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Speaker 1: just keeps snowballing. Politicians are taking advantage of it, using

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Speaker 1: it to rile up their base. Within a week, a

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Speaker 1: Cabinet minister and former Mujahideen warlord appears on TV from

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Speaker 1: Satara's hometown, Hurrah. He shot. He condemns her performance and

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Speaker 1: says that if the muja Hadeen were still in power,

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Speaker 1: this insult to the country would never have occurred.

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Speaker 4: It was a direct triit warning in front of the camera.

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Speaker 4: It was about Afghanistan. It was about Afghanistan. Contestant that

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Speaker 4: you are not Ala, come here.

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Speaker 1: The fear over Afghanistar is everywhere. Clerics are railing about

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Speaker 1: the show's Western influence and how it's corrupting the youth.

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Speaker 1: They call Satara a loose woman. Someone paints the word

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Speaker 1: whore onto her parents' front door.

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Speaker 4: They say, you're not from us. We don't want you'll

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Speaker 4: hear if you want to walk into this province, you

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Speaker 4: want to shot on.

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Speaker 1: Afghanistar is a Kaleidoscope production in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: produced by Samizda t Audio and hosted by me John Legend.

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Speaker 1: From Samiz dat Audio, the series producer is Meera Kumar.

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Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisitsina. Mix

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Speaker 1: and sound designed by Jeff Emtman, Story editing by Joe Sykes,

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Speaker 1: with original composition by Kyle Murdoch. Recording engineer Tim McClain.

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Speaker 1: Chapter artwork by A W. A Studios. From Kaleidoscope, the

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Speaker 1: executive producers are Kate Osborn, Mangesh Hattikur Oz Wolshyn and

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Speaker 1: Costas Linos. From iHeart, the executive producers are Ali Perry

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Speaker 1: and Katrina Norvell. Social Media by Dara Potts and Vahini Shori.

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Speaker 1: Special thanks to Tom Freston, Lizzie Jacobs, Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman,

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Speaker 1: Nikki Ettore, Bob Pittman, John Sykes. Conal Byrne, Saad Mohseni

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Speaker 1: and the Mohseni Family, Matthew Anderson and Axel Alonzo