‘I FEAR THE TALIBAN’

Groundbreaking Female Reporter Who Grilled Taliban Chiefs Flees Afghanistan in Fear

Beheshta Arghand carried out the unprecedented interview days after Taliban fighters took Kabul.

The groundbreaking female reporter who made headlines around the world when she held Taliban leaders to account on air has fled Afghanistan. Beheshta Arghand, 24, carried out the unprecedented interview this month, days after Taliban fighters took control of the capital, Kabul. She also recently interviewed Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012. However, according to CNN, Arghand has now left her job at Afghan news network TOLO, and has fled Afghanistan. “I left the country because, like millions of people, I fear the Taliban,” she reportedly explained in a WhatsApp message. “I worked there for one month and 20 days, then the Taliban came,” she wrote. Saad Mohseni, the owner of TOLO, told CNN that Arghand is not alone, saying: “Almost all our well-known reporters and journalists have left.”