Middle East Uncovered

Middle East Uncovered

Share this post

Middle East Uncovered
Middle East Uncovered
Taking on the Taliban with words

Taking on the Taliban with words

Olivia Cuthbert
Mar 04, 2022

Share this post

Middle East Uncovered
Middle East Uncovered
Taking on the Taliban with words
Share

As free expression disappears in Afghanistan, Mansoor Ramizy launches the Voice of Science podcast to counter censorship with open debate 

Military resistance crumbled when the Taliban tore across Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, seizing city after city and claiming the capital Kabul by August 15. Desperate Afghans fled but many more were stranded, forced to face a very different future from the one they had imagined just months previously. “The Taliban’s takeover came as a shock for my generation; we had moved on from the idea of such a regime regaining power,” says Ahmed Mansoor Ramizy, who is mounting a resistance against the extremist ideologies engulfing his country

Ahmad Mansoor Ramizy

Where force failed to repel the Taliban, his weapon is words, giving Afghans access to information and ideas that the group seeks to crush. “The Taliban miseducate the young with corrupted interpretations of religion…. We aim to provide an alternative so they have the choice to think for themselves.”

With books and newspapers subject to strict censorship, Ramizy, 20, has launched a podcast – the first in Afghanistan - to provide a space for original Afghan thinkers, scientists and changemakers to share their ideas in Persian and Pashto. Supported by an Innovation Hub grant from Ideas Beyond Borders, the Voice of Science podcast makes free thinking and open discussion available to all Afghans in their native languages via platforms beyond the Taliban’s control

Voice Of Science Podcast

“Digitally Afghans still have access to the outside world,” says Ramizy, who managed to escape as the Taliban closed in and now lives in Turkey. “There’s very little space for free thinkers in Afghanistan – religion, philosophy, science, these subjects are dangerous to discuss.” Approximately 18 million people in the country own smartphones, of whom around 7.3 million are connected to the internet. “Podcasts are easy to use - they require minimum internet bandwidth, can be downloaded for free and listened to anywhere at your own pace,” he adds.  

Social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and increasingly YouTube, are widely used as sources of information – and misinformation - in Afghanistan, but podcasts have yet to breakthrough. “We are experimenting with a whole new world of possibility here. We are showing other Afghan creators a new method and if our experiment is successful, I believe others will follow.”

The podcast is linked to a wider project run by Ideas Beyond Borders to make Wikipedia pages and books on subjects including critical thinking, science, and human rights available to all Afghans. Working with student translators, The House of Wisdom 2.0 Afghanistan project has so far translated 1100 Wikipedia articles into Pashto and 400 Wikipedia articles into Persian as part of IBB’s mission to uproot radical ideologies and provide people with the tools to think for themselves in countries where extremism and oppression stifle free speech.

“Despite constant conflict and war, many people in Afghanistan are curious to know more about the world around them. This podcast is for them. Ahmed Mansoor Ramizy is the voice of an inquisitive population that the Taliban seeks to suppress, igniting people with knowledge and hope for a better tomorrow when the doors seem to have slammed shut,” says Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, Founder and President of Ideas Beyond Borders.

Born shortly after the US invasion toppled the previous Taliban regime in 2001, Ramizy grew up in an era of relative freedom for Afghans. His circle of friends, both male and female, would meet regularly at a café in central Kabul to discuss ideas around faith, philosophy, science, and spirituality, in an atmosphere of open debate. “Overall, people were welcoming new trends, ideas, and initiatives… Those were some of the sweetest memories that I proudly carry everywhere I go,” he says.

Nosh Book Café in Kabul 

The café closed on August 16, the day after the Taliban claimed Kabul.
The café closed on August 16, the day after the Taliban claimed Kabul. 

For now, that life seems lost in Afghanistan, which operates once more under the Taliban’s strict sharia law, with men and women segregated, women’s rights severely curtailed, music banned and men forced to grow beards in recognition of the group’s uncompromising interpretation of Islam.

Taliban Insurgents
Taliban Insurgents

In this atmosphere, it’s difficult to share ideas, but he is determined to try. The spread of extremism is like “poison spilled in a pond,” Ramizy says. “The longer we wait, the more radical society becomes, poisoning generations yet to come.”


Subscribe to Middle East Uncovered

Launched 3 years ago
Voices from the ground. Perspectives that matter.

Share this post

Middle East Uncovered
Middle East Uncovered
Taking on the Taliban with words
Share

Discussion about this post

User's avatar
The Fall of Kabul Was a Century in the Making
What the West mistook for collapse was actually a return to the fractured reality beneath a failing state
May 21 • 
Shabnam Nasimi
29

Share this post

Middle East Uncovered
Middle East Uncovered
The Fall of Kabul Was a Century in the Making
7
Afghanistan’s Education Crisis Affects Boys Too
As the Taliban cripples Afghanistan’s education system, Sameer and his NGO fight to keep classrooms open—for both boys and girls
Mar 18 • 
Olivia Cuthbert
5

Share this post

Middle East Uncovered
Middle East Uncovered
Afghanistan’s Education Crisis Affects Boys Too
The Resistance That Devours Its Own
In Iran’s proxy wars, Arab suffering is leveraged, not mourned
Jul 2 • 
Hamza Howidy
35

Share this post

Middle East Uncovered
Middle East Uncovered
The Resistance That Devours Its Own
1

Ready for more?

© 2025 Ideas Beyond Borders
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Create your profile

User's avatar

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.