Dispatches with Hollie McKay

November 23, 2021 question and answer session with Hollie McKay in Afghanistan. The first question is from wissshy Your work is so important it feels so tense watching. How do you relax over there on your days off? It's always hard to relax because when I'm not out interviewing, I'm at home writing, researching, preparing, getting one story done, or preparing for something else. So, there isn't a...

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” ― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet Accurate figures are impossible to come by; however, U.S. intelligence officials in the past have estimated that there are some 2000 members of the Afghan ISIS affiliate, which started as an offshoot by high-ranking, disaffected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan...

“Good pictures. Tragedy and violence certainly make powerful images. It is what we get paid for. But there is a price extracted with every such frame: some of the emotion, the vulnerability, the empathy that makes us human, is lost every time the shutter is released.” -   Greg Marinovich Editor’s Note: The audio track contains an in-depth conversation between Simpkin and Mckay. The recording is a...

It is hard to believe that it has been more than three months since the Taliban took the Presidential Palace. Afghans are resilient people, and life goes on—even without the buzz of music and foreign cash flow. Cafes and restaurants are still open (and many can be spotted smoking cigarettes or the popular waterpipe known as Hookah), commercial airplanes have resumed transits across the country and...

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” ― Voltaire Monday marks three months since Kabul crumbled into the hands of the Taliban. It feels like a lifetime ago, but yesterday at the same time. The evening earlier – an especially sultry late summer night – my photographer Jake Simkin and I were working in the nort...

“Never wash blood, with blood.” -Afghan Proverb As the sun dips behind the towering, ancient rocks – spreading pinkish smears across the frozen sky – dozens of Taliban fighters pose for selfies. They’re poised in front of what is left of the Buddhas of Bamyan, which the Taliban blistered and blustered more than twenty years ago, much to the horror of the international community. The irony. Only no...

“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” ― James Joyce, Ulysses This week was predominated by hospital visits across Kabul. Thanks to the few international donors that have remained, children and victims of war and poverty have some semblance of adequate healthcare, although it is unclear how long such programs will be funded as Afghanistan falls f...

This dispatch will be answering questions that have been asked of Hollie on the Internet. esteban.j.nunez What are the primary concerns of everyday people? What are the main issues tribal leaders, government leaders, etc. are dealing with? Are the concerns of the leaders aligned with their people? I think at the end of the day, everybody is most concerned about the sort of the economic crisis and...

Editor’s Notes: A technical issue with the audio recording for this dispatch may cause it to cut off intermittently beginning at the 6:58 minute mark. Also, there is an additional link to a 52-minute podcast Hollie did with “The You Project” in Australia at the end of this edition. Dispatches from Afghanistan: Exclusive interview with an ISIS-K fighter to the “Mother of All Bombs” aftermath and la...

“Light will someday split you open; even if your life is now a cage.” ― Hafiz This week we traveled through Nangarhar, Kunar and the mysterious, hard-to-reach province of Nuristan. It truly is the land of light peppered with frozen hilltops and curious, kind faces emerging from the thick and untamed terrain. Indeed, getting there was no easy feat – entailing hours of spluttering through rocky moun...

Don’t put your hand in every hole, or a snake might bite you -Afghan Proverb Early last week, I found myself becoming easily irritated, frustrated, even angry – and not quite able to figure out what was going on. And then it hit me. Weeks and weeks of being invisible almost every time I walked into an interview or waited outside a Ministry checkpoint takes a strange toll. I had, regrettably in man...

This time we are going to be answering questions about Afghanistan that were asked on Hollie's on her Instagram page. These questions were asked as part of a post for a giveaway of her book “Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield”. This episode will answer questions picked from a list of forty -six that were asked. Hollie will answer them in her own words. Future episodes...

“Fly on, little wing.” -Jimi Hendrix It has been almost seven weeks since the Taliban stunningly took control of the Presidential Palace – and subsequently the entire country – and slowly life is returning to a new normal, except of course for girls’ education which sadly remains halted. In addition to that major injustice, is the crippling economy which I fear will have major repercussions on the...

Hollie McKay’s introduction to the cultural minefields of the Fertile Crescent began in 2014 just after the Arab Spring when she literally covered a UN mission to remove land mines in Iraq, a mission first inspired by Princess Diana. Over the better part of a decade she covered the rise and fall of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and how it affected ordinary people, documented in her book “On...

“Surely, of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.” – Freya Stark, explorer Perhaps one of the strangest realities since the Taliban takeover last month is that, unlike in years past where travel outside of Kabul was typically wrought with immense danger and often unthinkable, the whole country has seemingly opened up. The once unpaved roads ripe for kidnapping are open – albei...

In this dispatch, Hollie checks in for an interview. Listen to the audio. What’s the difference between Kabul and Kandahar Hollie compares the hustle and bustle of Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul with the more orderly atmosphere of the country’s second largest city of Kandahar. She describes “long grassy strips with Kandahari’s having picnics.” She also talks about the differences she encounte...

“May you rather die in fight, my son, than be disgraced before the enemy.” -Pashtun Proverb Oh, Afghanistan. Still one of the most magical yet wounded parcels on the planet. It is a place where poppies grow wild and men in the mountains cradle guns like children. It’s a place where kites fly high, and everyone has a war story, even though most never chose to go to war. Welcome to a little more of...

“Whatever countries I conquer in the world, I would never forget your beautiful gardens. When I remember the summits of your beautiful mountains, I forget the greatness of the Delhi throne.” Ahmad Shah Durrani, Founder of the Afghan Empire, (1747-1773). It has been another whirlwind, heartbreaking and heart-rendering week documenting the “new epoch” that is Afghanistan. Yesterday marked one month...

“Our national unity is based on ensuring social justice.” -Ahmad Shah Massoud, Lion of Panjshir It has been a wild week on the ground in Afghanistan, to say the least. It has been mayhem and madness, especially when it comes to the amount of misinformation I am seeing perpetuated across the mainstream media and social media. Images of fights that took place years ago, in countries that are not eve...

“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.” ― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban "You war reporters," one U.S. military contractor told me over dinner in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a few nights ago. "You are a different breed." Certainly, there is something deeply twisted about trying to get back into a pl...

“Too much blood Too many tears shed Just how much before the madness turns our soul to dust Have you had enough?” -Joss Stone, Take Good Care People often ask me if I am ever scared working in hostile environments. The truth is, fear pales in comparison to the anxiety of what we have come to call moral injury. It's a gnawing in the pit of your stomach. It's the sleeplessness. It's the feeling that...

“A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water.” -        Eleanor Roosevelt For almost all her adult life, my dear friend Fariha Easer has worked tirelessly not only to be the voice of embattled Afghan women but to be their vessel as well. She has roamed the volatile country and taken the podium wherever possible to bring the stories of Afghan women to light. F...

“Why is the killing of a million a lesser crime than the killing of an individual?” — Raphael Lemkin, Polish lawyer best known for coining the word genocide The world of international law is a murky one with many contradictions and nuances. However, I hope that by addressing the fundamentals and the most frequently asked questions regarding its implementation, we can all get on the same page and d...

“Spoken word poetry gives a traumatic experience humanity. People can look beyond the fact that there’s a massive war going on, but actually see the person.” -          Amerah Saleh, Yemeni poet For more than six years, Yemen – already the poorest country in the Middle East – has been ravaged by a war between the Saudi-backed coalition and dislodged Yemen government and the Iran-supported Houthi i...

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.” -Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. Secretary of Defense 9 August 2021 RAQQA STILL IN RUINS Almost four years since the Syrian city of Raqqa, once deemed the “Caliphate Capital” was liberated from ISIS, the lives of survivors and returnees remain...