Radion Azadi: Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Power (Part V)

In my previous posts, I discussed corruption within the RFE/RL bureau, specifically Radio Azadi, in Kabul. I also alluded to another serious issue: sexual harassment. In this post, I want to share a few specific examples to shed light on what occurred during the bureau’s early years.

At the time, and likely still, Radio Azadi broadcast its programs in two major languages: Farsi/Dari and Pashto. Each language section operated under a separate editor, and every report or segment created by journalists had to pass through these editors before being sent to Prague for broadcast. While the editorial review process was intended to ensure quality and consistency, it was frequently misused by certain opportunistic men to exploit their female colleagues. Many of these men were married, yet that didn’t stop them from making inappropriate advances toward the women they worked with.

One of the more insidious methods of control was the misuse of editorial authority. Let me explain how this played out.

Each journalist was responsible for producing their own reports. Once a piece was complete, it would be submitted to the section editor for feedback and approval. Only then would it be forwarded to Prague for airing. This gave editors significant power over their colleagues’ work, and some used that power to manipulate and pressure female reporters.

My office was located in the basement, tucked between two studios. I was responsible for managing the technical infrastructure: installing and maintaining the equipment, and ensuring our reports were recorded and transmitted to Prague. Later, we transitioned to live broadcasts, but in those early days, everything was pre-recorded. My small office housed two computer servers, and I was in frequent contact with our team in Prague. I spent most of my time down there.

One day, I got a call about a computer issueو, something had stopped working or been disconnected from the network. I went upstairs to the second floor, where the main newsroom was located. As I climbed the marble stairs, I heard someone crying behind a closed door. I paused, then cautiously opened it. Inside, I saw R.M. with a woman wiping tears from her face. Most of the staff had already left, and the workday was over. While it wasn’t unusual for some reporters to stay late, what I walked in on felt disturbingly out of place.

Amidst the woman’s sobs, I heard R.M. say, in a low but insistent voice, “I told you already… you still won’t accept it…” I quickly did what I had come to do and left the room. I don’t know what happened afterward, or how long she stayed there. But that moment stuck with me. The way R.M. spoke, his presence there at that hour, it all felt deeply wrong. I couldn’t stop wondering what he was trying to force her to accept.

And it wasn’t an isolated incident.

I knew R.M. had previously manipulated another colleague, Z.M., a married woman with two children. Even the guards at the building whispered about it: “I swear to God, I saw Z.M. in R.M.’s car, sitting in the front seat, and his hand was on her leg.” These weren’t just rumors. People saw what was happening, but no one dared to speak up.

Eventually, the situation escalated. In a desperate attempt to reclaim his honor, Z.M.’s husband threw acid on R.M.’s face. That’s how far things had gone.

There were other incidents, too. Once, I got a panicked call from a female reporter while I was in my basement office. “Come up, hurry!” she shouted over the phone. I rushed upstairs and found her frantically trying to cover her computer monitor with her hijab.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

She asked me to wait until she had left the room. Then she told me to lift the scarf. When I did, I saw pornographic images set as her desktop wallpaper. She didn’t know how to turn the monitor off, so she had tried to hide it instead.

I removed the image and checked the system logs. It was clear that someone had accessed her profile, someone who knew her username and password and had stayed late to do it. I knew who it was; the same person had done similar things before. I warned her.

Sadly, this kind of harassment happened more than once. Each time, it was carried out by male colleagues. And each time, the women were too afraid to report it. The culture of silence, fear, and impunity made it nearly impossible for them to speak out.

A translated version of this post is published on my Farsi blog
Related previous posts
Radio Azadi: The Hazara Exclusion (Part IV)
Radio Azadi: Amplifying Hazara Discrimination in Afghanistan (Part III)
Radio Azadi: an Office Enmeshed in a Heist (Part II)
Radio Azadi: An Organization Mired in Moral and Financial Corruption (Part I)

Radio Azadi: The Hazara Exclusion (Part IV)

It would have been better if Radio Azaid, the Afghanistan Service, had been renamed Radio of Pashtuns. Radio Azadi, which means a free radio, is a misnomer for a radio that is strongly controlled and catered towards Pathun ethnonationalism. Radio Azadi not only amplified through its biased programs but also discriminated against hiring Hazara applicants and employees. This post is in a series of blog posts that I have decided to write about Radio Azadi, reflecting on my experience and the experience of others who worked in this organization.  

When Radio Azadi opened its bureau in Kabul, it hired four Hazara employees; the rest were mostly Pashtuns and Tajiks, except the administrative manager and a guard who belonged to the Turkman ethnic group. Two Czech technicians from Prague hired me; had they been Pashuns or Tajiks, I had zero chance of employment. A year later, I was fired just because I was a Hazara. 

A year later, only one Hazara remained. The rest were pushed out using various methods, including systemic discrimination, denial, trickery, and deceit. Ahmad Takal, an ethnonationalist Pashtun from Wardak province, was leading the Kabul bureau at that time. Along with a group of senior editors, mostly Pashtuns, in Prague, Czech Republic, he promoted a Pashtun-centric and Hazara-phobic view. They had no interest in hiring Hazaras.

One of the most successful journalists in the Farsi/Dari section of Radio Azadi was Basir Bigzad. He was a Hazara and was one of the most fearless journalists, traveling to unsafe areas to gather news. His reports had depth and complexity, dealing with detailed specifics and examining various perspectives, which showed a profound understanding of the subjects.

Once, Basir came from Herat to Kabul. That year, the salaries of all journalists, especially those who reported from unsafe areas, were raised. One day, the director, Ahmad Takal, invited him to his office and said, "Basir, you are one of our best reporters, and no one can replace you. We want to appreciate you more. Ask for your salary to be doubled. In your request, write that you will resign if this request is not accepted. This will force the radio to comply because we do not want to lose you."

Later, Basir confided, "I was confused about what to do, but in the end, I wrote the request and sent it." The next day, he received an email saying, "We have accepted your resignation. Goodbye." Basir was dumbfounded; he was unaware that the Pashtun director in Kabul and Prague had come up with chicaneries to boot him from his position.

The last Hazara working at Radio Azadi in Kabul was Ahmad Behzad. He was one of the most educated journalists in the Farsi/Dari section of the radio and had an excellent command of Farsi/Dari literature, distinguishing him from many of his colleagues.

One day, the Pashtun director in Kabul and the senior editors of Radio Azadi in Prague decided to dismiss Ahmad Behzad. On what ground? He had left a comment on a post on a blog. What he had written didn’t matter. They had told him, "You are not allowed to post comments on blogs because you are an employee of Radio Azadi." He was nearly fired without any reason, but that didn’t happen. Later, Behzad ran for parliament from Herat province and served as a representative for two terms.

This was the condition at Radio Azadi's Afghanistan service in Kabul and Prague offices, where everything from moral and financial corruption to discrimination, deceit, and trickery was pandemic.

I recently heard that only one Hazara currently works at Radio Azadi, and the rest are mostly Pashtuns and Tajiks. Even Radio Azadi Afghanistan's Farsi/Dari section is run by those whose first language is not Farsi/Dari.

A translated version of this post is published on my Farsi blog
Also
Radio Azadi: Amplifying Hazara Discrimination in Afghanistan (Part III)
Radio Azadi: an Office Enmeshed in a Heist (Part II)
Radio Azadi: An Organization Mired in Moral and Financial Corruption (Part I)

Radio Azadi: Amplifying Hazara Discrimination in Afghanistan (Part III)

On January 20, 2015, Radio Azadi, the Afghanistan Service, purposefully published a parnicious video report from Herat, located in western Afghanistan, which was subsequently published on its website, YouTube, and social media platforms. The report centered around Iranian influence in Afghanistan, and the reporter sought to cast doubt on the presence of Hazaras in Herat.

In the report, the reporter visits the Jebrael neighborhood, a Hazara-majority area, and claims that Jebrael suddenly appeared in what was once an empty plain. The implication is clear: the Hazaras were not originally from Herat but were recently brought there by Iran. The reporter further questions local residents, asking if their homes were built by Iran. One elderly man responds, firmly stating, "No, we built everything with our own money and with our own hands."

The underlying message of the report is that the presence of Hazaras in Herat is part of a covert Iranian government plan to establish a corridor to Afghanistan, using the Hazara population. From Radio Azadi's perspective, Jebrael is depicted as an Iranian initiative designed to fill the vacuum left by NATO forces in the region.

This report is just one example of Radio Azadi's Afghanistan section's biased content regularly produced and disseminated. Evidently, the reporter deliberately sought to challenge the legitimacy of the Hazara community in Herat. This incident reflects a broader pattern of Hazara-phobia and dehumanization of the Hazara people.

I recently learned that Radio Free Europe’s funding has been cut, and I sincerely hope this information is accurate. The continued existence of Radio Azadi, a deeply corrupt, ethnocentric, and biased organization that consistently supports Pashtuns and the Taliban, is more harmful than beneficial. It has had no positive impact on Afghanistan’s situation and will likely never do so. Instead, it has become a platform for Taliban propaganda and those who advocate for Pashtun ethnic dominance.

Also
Radio Azadi: an Office Enmeshed in a Heist (Part II)
Radio Azadi: An Organization Mired in Moral and Financial Corruption (Part I)

Radio Azadi: an Office Enmeshed in a Heist (Part II)

In my previous post, I wrote about theft at Radio Azadi. Here’s an example:

The RFE/RL Afghanistan bureau in Kabul had just moved from the Mustafa Hotel in the buffer zone, located between downtown and Shahr-e Naw, to Wazir Akbar Khan, a more opulent and safe neighborhood. It was sometime in late 2002. The city's electricity was rarely available, let alone reliable, so the office has received permission from the main office in Prague, the Czech Republic, to purchase a generator to provide electricity to our newly built two studios plus nearly 45 desktop computers. I was a technician and, therefore, was responsible for any technological problems. 

I went to Shahr-e-Naw and found a computer shop owned by a Herati merchant that sold German generators. It was nearly two years after the people of the Taliban regime, and finding a powerful generator was like a dream come true. The only generator that the store had was 5000W, which was considered pretty good given the scarcity. Plus, if a generator is made in Germany or any European country other than China, you would treat the purchase with trust. 

They quoted me a price of $8000. I returned to the office with a price quotation and gave it to the admin. The manager told me to go to the computer store and tell the guy to write the price as $12,000. I asked why $12,000. He said, "Two thousand is for you, and two thousand is for me." I replied that I had a salary and couldn’t take part in such a deal. He said, “Let me buy it myself.” The next day, the generator was purchased. From that single transaction, $4000 went into the manager’s pocket.

To be continued...

A Farsi version of this blog post is published here

Also
Radio Azadi: An Organization Mired in Moral and Financial Corruption (Part I)

Radio Azadi: An Organization Mired in Moral and Financial Corruption (Part I)

When Kari Lake was nominated as a special advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media, some media outlets reported that Trump had asked Lake to gut the government agency that oversees Voice of America (VOA). Instead of gutting, Kari Lake dismantled the agency, which oversees six organizations, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America. I don’t know much about the other organizations that were closed, but I know a lot about Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Afghan Service, known as Radio Azadi. (to call it Azadi, which means freedom, is a misnomer; I will write on this more in an upcoming blog post). I worked in its Kabul bureau as a technical manager in 2003. I was responsible for all communication tools, technology, radio broadcasting, and relay systems. I know how corrupt this organization was. I mean corrupt in every sense, ethically and financially.

During the time I worked, male journalists would openly demand sex from their female colleagues in broad daylight, and sometimes in crude ways. They uploaded pornographic videos onto female journalists' computers. They set pornographic images as desktop wallpapers on women’s computers. The vile and crude sexual harassment men inflicted on women was widespread. Female journalists were intimated and coerced in a variety of ways. No one addressed the women’s complaints. If a complaint was made, the victim would be accused of misconduct and moral corruption and eventually fired. So, no one said anything and really had the courage to complain.

One day, I was in the administrative manager's office. "Look outside," he said, pointing to a young girl in black clothes standing on the fourth floor of the Mustafa Hotel, leaning against the fence while her hands clasping onto the handrail. “She wants a job. She’s from your ethnic group, Hazara,” he said, with a contemptuous smile that conveyed disdain, humiliation, and condescension. I turned around and looked outside; the young girl was standing at the office's front door, belonging to the radio director. I asked if she had brought her resume and if she had been shortlisted or called up for an interview. He hinted that she wanted to be hired through “another way.” He meant she had to bow to the director’s demands first, and we could do nothing. The manager told me the demands were sexual. 

Some of the women who were sexually harassed now live in Europe and North America. I think if they have the courage, they should file complaints against those men. Some of those men now live in Europe and Australia.

In the year that I worked at Radio Azadi, the Afghanistan branch in Kabul, embezzlement and theft were practiced at maximum. The administrative manager handled all purchases himself, including buying groceries. The manager, whose primary responsibility was to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the organization through daily management, staff supervision, record-keeping, facilitating communication, and ensuring compliance with policies, spent half his day driving his car to the market to buy food supplies. From potatoes and eggplants to oil and gas, transportation, travel costs, and technology purchases, all were doubly charged. His subordinates were his close relatives. The guards at the gate were his relatives. The rented cars belonged to senior managers of the radio, who had leased them to the radio at exorbitant rates. Some of them had bought two or three cars just to rent them to the radio at high costs. They were profiting from every angle—from the daily wages of laborers digging trenches for pipes and electricity to food supplies, transportation, and everything else.

At Radio Azadi, nepotism was of utmost importance. Hiring was based on favoritism, and preferential treatment was given to family members or close friends. The director of Radio Azadi in Afghanistan was a Pashtun from Wardak province. He had hired all his family members at the radio station—his brother, nephews, relatives, and even their young children as young as 10 for the children’s and youth programs. The only people he hadn’t brought in were their wives, sisters, and daughters, as this goes against the customs of some Pashtuns.

There was an unhealthy atmosphere filled with mistrust, hatred, rivalry, and hostility, especially between the administrative manager and the director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Kabul. These two men did not trust each other. Both men were vying over who should control the embezzlement and theft. They were contending over who should benefit from the money that was supposed to be spent on running a radio station that was supposed to do journalism. The director, a Pashtun from Wardak province, wanted to fire the administrative manager, a Turkmen retired general from the communist era, but he couldn’t because someone in the main office in Prague, Czech Republic, supported the manager.

To be continued...

A Farsi version of this blog post is published here