Radio silence: An investigation into the governor of Kabul

Pakistani police are stepping up their raids, targeting neighborhood after neighborhood; in 2025, 942,000 Afghans were expelled from Pakistan, according to the United Nations. For Jawadi, a forced return would amount to a death sentence.

In late 2025, after yet another interrogation, he fled his home in the Hindu Kush mountains of Daykundi, a province neighboring the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan. Jawadi is a well-known voice for change in this majority Hazara territory, ruled by a predominantly Pashtun Taliban. As editor-in-chief of Radio Nasim, the region’s most-listened-to local station with an audience of 300,000, he champions progressive ideas, advocating for women’s rights and education.

But since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, Jawadi has seen his freedom of speech slipping away. In August 2025, four years after the Taliban seized Kabul, he was arrested for the 12th time — one too many. The journalist gave in, and Radio Nasim stopped broadcasting: “For 13 years, we were the voice of hope, kindness, awareness and life. … But today, with a heavy heart, we must say, ‘We can’t go on any longer.’”

Since the Taliban returned to power, a veil of silence has fallen over Afghanistan. More than 75 journalists have been arrested, and hundreds have fled the country. Some 95% of women have had to leave the profession, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Any criticism of the regime is condemned, and “simply writing about a traffic accident can be problematic,” said a journalist now in exile, speaking on condition of anonymity. Yet, from France, the United States and Canada, exiled newsrooms continue to scrutinize the regime, relying on networks of anonymous correspondents.