--- title: How Radio Gives Afghans a Voice | TIME description: Masood Farivar began reporting in Afghanistan during the war with the Soviets, and has now created a radio network to reach the Afghan masses canonical: https://time.com/video/g5TRxE9R/ og:title: How Radio Gives Afghans a Voice og:description: Masood Farivar began reporting in Afghanistan during the war with the Soviets, and has now created a radio network to reach the Afghan masses og:url: https://time.com/video/g5TRxE9R/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/g5TRxE9R/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Radio Gives Afghans a Voice twitter:description: Masood Farivar began reporting in Afghanistan during the war with the Soviets, and has now created a radio network to reach the Afghan masses twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/g5TRxE9R/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How Radio Gives Afghans a Voice > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How Radio Gives Afghans a Voice [Watch (HLS stream): How Radio Gives Afghans a Voice](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/g5TRxE9R.m3u8) (4:50)  _Published 2011-05-27. Masood Farivar began reporting in Afghanistan during the war with the Soviets, and has now created a radio network to reach the Afghan masses_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:13 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Afghan Restaurant For and By Women Creates Jobs Under Taliban Rule](/video/72CSuVw2/) ### Afghan Restaurant For and By Women Creates Jobs Under Taliban Rule [Afghan Box Camera Project](/video/qJdMXpFd/) ### Afghan Box Camera Project [Video: The Afghan Army in Action](/video/vNDBNWfn/) ### Video: The Afghan Army in Action --- ## Transcript [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] How should farmers combat the grapevine pests that are terrorizing their crops? [ FOREIGN ] That's whats up for discussion on this week's addition of farm talk. A popular Afghan radio call in show. That deals with different agricultural issues. [ FOREIGN ] The show inspired by NPR's Car Talk is the creation of massive [ INAUDIBLE ] a veteran Afghan journalist who took a most unlikely path the United States and then made his way back. As a teenager in the late 1980s. He fought with the Anti soviet resistance. Traveling across the border with Pakistan on dangerous missions. [ FOREIGN ] It was during this period that he had his first taste of journalism. The trade that would change his life. The idea was that Afghanistan was a closed war and a very dangerous. Country to work and as a reporter so why not train the locals who knew the country and who are already there. I file the stories on a mission that I personally took part and, and a time that there wasn't. Cleo whether was forking as a journalist or as a, as a fighter. With help from friends. He made it to the United States. Where he eventually received a scholarship to Harvard. Mizu wanted to return after graduating, but Apghanistan had slid into a vicous civil war. Instead he cut his teeth as a business wire reporter in New York, covering everything from energy markets to the United Nations. 18 years passed. When he finally made it back home after the fall of the Taliban he knew what he had to do. I had over a decade of journalism experience at the major American media. Organization and I felt that the, that was one area that I could work in and give something back to my country man. The African media has come a long ways since the Jerconian days of the Talaban resheem. Dozens of organizations now compete across every platform. But in a country where three- quarters of people are illiterate, and electricity is limited, radio is king. [ FOREIGN ] For the past three years, Massoud has been general manager of Salam Watandar, the nationwide public broadcast service that continues to evolve under his guidance. Apart from breaking news, it hits like farm talk. Programming spans interactive shows on Islam to geography lessons for children. [ FOREIGN ] The network has also challenged cultural norms by hiring women reporters like Fatima who are eager to prove themselves. I tried seven times to leave Germany And my family told me that it's dangerous work, and dangerous job, just leave it. We don't want you working as a journalist. But I tried, I couldn't. wow, that's Much as he enjoys training a new generation of Afghan journalists Massoud still hits the street to do his own reporting. Maybe you can send a, find someone with a camera and send him there. He's always struck by how much Kabul has changed over the years, for better and for worse. I was here in the late 90s when Kabul was a ghost town. The population was probably a quarter of what it is today, very few cars on the street, very few people, really kind of a sense of resignation and hopelessness that reigns over the city. The population for one, has quadrupled, there's been a lot more. Construction and economic activity, but with the way that things are going in the rest of the country, a lot of people have really lost hope and optimism about the future. But their life goes on, you know? Foreign forces insist they've turned a corner in the fight against the Taliban, but in a recent interview with Mark Sedwill, NATO's ambassador to Afghanistan, the former rebel turned reporter is characteristically skeptical. Given the diminishing public support, does it really matter, the extent The deadline, or to focus on 2014. Well I think it's worth remembering that, although public supporters declined, it is still strong. For time. com this Jason [ UNKNOWN ] in Kabul. 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