REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
- Beheshta Arghand did a groundbreaking live interview with a Taliban leader after the group took Kabul.
- The TOLO News anchor now says the leader showed up unannounced and asked to be interviewed.
- Arghand, who has since fled Afghanistan, said she felt lucky she was wearing loose clothing.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The female TV news anchor who did a groundbreaking interview with a Taliban official live on air, said he showed up to the studio unannounced and asked to be interviewed, and said she felt lucky that she was already wearing long clothing.
Beheshta Arghand, a 24-year-old presenter at the independent outlet TOLO News, interviewed a Taliban leader on August 17, two days after the group seized control of Kabul.
As Insider's Grace Panetta reported, she was the first female TV host to conduct a live sit-down interview with a Taliban leader.
But while she was praised for doing it, and it was seen as a possible sign that the group's attitude towards women had changed, she said she has since left Afghanistan out of fear of the Taliban.
Arghand told Reuters that the official turned up at the studio despite not having an invite, and asked to be interviewed.
"I was shocked, I lost my control ... I said to myself that maybe they came to ask why did I come to the studio," she said.
Arghand said she adjusted the headscarf that she was already wearing so it would look more like a traditional hijab, and that she was glad she was already wearing conservative clothing.
"[Luckily] I always wear long clothes in the studio because we have different people with different minds," she said.
She said that around a week after her interview, the Taliban told TOLO News to make all female staff wear a hijab, and that it suspended female anchors at other TV stations.
And she said the Taliban also told local news outlets not to report on the Taliban's takeover of the country and what they are doing in power.
Arghand has since fled to Doha, Qatar. She said Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai - who she previously interviewed - was able to help her get out of the country on August 24. Yousafzai was shot by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 after advocating for girls' education.
The Taliban have said that they are committed to women's rights, but they restricted women's rights, movements, and clothing the last time they were in power, and enforced brutal punishments, including death.
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