Summer in New York City is a wonderful time to enjoy the city’s best attractions – the multiple outdoor restaurants, parks and venues, but it’s also an incredibly hot and slow time for city dwellers.
At Dan Rather Reports, we tend to air several re-runs, which makes for a slower schedule and with Bryant Park just outside our door, it’s temping to retreat into the shade of the park, or take advantage of an afternoon yoga class on the lawn.
This past spring was a whirlwind of travel – spending a lot of time and energy on the subject of Afghanistan, so it’s nice to slowdown a tad. But as the summer heats up, so are the headlines coming out of that country and it’s hard to suppress the desire to return and continue reporting on the myriads of stories coming from that part of the world.
While working in Afghanistan, I had the pleasure of meeting two other journalist – Leslie Knott and Clementine Malpas – who have spent much of their professional lives reporting from Afghanistan. They helped us with our ‘Kim vs. Kabul’ hour, as well as the most recent ‘Unintended Inmates’ story. For several years, they have been working on a documentary about a woman named Gulnaz who was raped at age 19 and as a result,became pregnant. Gulnaz was sent to prison for having sex outside of marriage, even though she was forced. Today, she has been released from prison, but because of societal pressure she decided to marry her rapist. In March, Leslie and Clem finished their documentary by visiting Gulnaz and her rapist-now-husband in their home.
It’s unimaginable to picture such an odd family dynamic, but Leslie and Clem have captured it in their 10-minute story they produced for Channel 4 in the UK. I really recommend watching this piece…the story left me totally flummoxed and angered, but it’s a great piece of reporting.
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