Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, tens of thousands of Afghans fled to foreign countries. The UK evacuated around 18,000 people, who are now placed in temporary housing. Organizations such as British Red Cross are now seeking to assist Afghans resettle into more permanent homes. In this episode, Sveto Muhammad Ishoq speaks to two guests: Halima, a British-Afghan evacuated last year from Kabul, and Nadine, the Afghan Relocations Project Officer at the British Red Cross. Sveto speaks about Halima's evacuation experience and her life in one of London’s hotels and learns about the British Red Cross' programs for newly arrived Afghans.  

Sveto is an Afghan women’s rights activist, Afghanistan’s first Schwarzman Scholar, and is currently pursuing a degree in Gender, Development and Globalisation at LSE. The experience of living mostly as a refugee in 6 different countries and witnessing the negative assumptions about life in Afghanistan inspired Sveto to create a storytelling platform, Chadari (https://chadariproject.com/), which gives an opportunity for Afghan women to express their perspectives, talk about their achievements, and to show the world that Afghanistan is much more than what can be seen in the media. Sveto proudly represents Afghanistan on national and international platforms, including the British Red Cross, UNHCR, and UN Women, and recently gave a TEDx talk at LSE promoting unheard experiences of Afghan women.