Tom Sass

Tom Sass appears in Afghanistan, five years on: our correspondent visits as the The Intelligence correspondent reporting from Afghanistan. The source says he spent about ten days in the country, visiting Kabul, Herat and Kandahar and taking a roughly 1,000-kilometre road trip.

His role is to hold the episode’s central tension together. He reports that violence has fallen and urban life can look calmer than expected, while also describing Taliban checkpoints, vice-and-virtue policing, poverty, hunger, girls’ school restrictions, and the failure of outside coercion to moderate Taliban Hardline Rule.

Connections

• Afghanistan - reporting subject.
• The Intelligence and Economist Podcasts - show and publisher context.
• Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and Taliban Hardline Rule - governing order he analyzes.
• Humanitarian Isolation, Girls Education Workaround, and Forced Refugee Return - main humanitarian and social frames from his segment.