Afghan photographer shares thoughts on country's progress
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Taliban continues to be a dangerous group. The photographer I worked with during my trip to Afghanistan earlier this year was in California visiting his brother, so he stopped by to give me an update on how his home country is doing.
Iqbal Sapand was with me during my exclusive interview with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Roots of Peace, a California charity helping Afghan farmers.
Sapand said the Taliban attacks are deeply affecting businesses and journalists, making it much harder to cover stories without security.
When he works with foreigners to cover stories on the street and in the provinces, Sapand said, "I always advise them that they should pay attention to their security and I'm just always telling them how long we have to stay in one place, to cover [a story] safely. So we go on the streets and we say, 'You can stay here for 15 or 10 minutes.' We cover that and then we go. We change locations, we go to another location."
I asked him if things have gotten worse now than when I was there and he replied, "Yeah, it's worse because at the moment there's kidnapping cases, too many explosions."
Still, that danger is not stopping this Emmy-Award winning producer and cameraman from covering stories in Afghanistan. He has a large family there and they are committed to their country's future.
