Sana Safi (ثنا ساپۍ - born 1989) is an Afghan broadcast journalist, currently working for BBC World Service

Early life

Sana Safi was born in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

and brought up in

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

Helmand Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 13 ...

, in Nangarhar, and in other cities in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. Safi left Afghanistan in 2007 and by 2014 was living in the United Kingdom. She is fluent in

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

, and English.

Career

Safi lives in London where she works for the BBC. She started her career as a presenter/producer for a children's programme in the eastern Afghan city of

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Dari/ ps, جلال‌آباد, ) is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 356,274, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about from the capital Kabul. Jala ...

before joining the BBC Afghan's Afghan Woman Hour programme and main current affairs transmissions later. She is currently a presenter for BBC Pashto's TV show which is a half-hour show, made up of local, regional, and international news. Safi was the first journalist to speak to Afghanistan's Lebanese-American First Lady

Rula Ghani Rula F. Saadah Ghani (Afghan name: Bibi Gul; born 1948) is a former first lady of Afghanistan and wife of former president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani. In 2015, Rula Ghani was named to the Time 100, a list of the world's most influential people, ...

in her first broadcast interview, after her husband

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban. Born in ...

took office. Alongside Safi's journalistic work, she is known for writing fiction. She writes mainly

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

, widely published in her native country of

. Her stories tell the tale of a young independent Muslim woman who knows all about the secrets of her country of origin and traditions and is also very much integrated into western society. Safi tells the contrasting features of East and West and the similarities of human kind. Considering her background and upbringing, Safi does not shy away from some fundamental social issues in her stories. She has written about a wide range of topics, from sexual, and physical violence against women, to the dating, socializing and daily life of a young westerner.

References

External links

Sana Safi's Short Stories published in this widely read Afghan Website
(non-English)
BBC Website which contains Sana's work
(non-English)
Official Blog
non-English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Safi, Sana 1989 births Living people Afghan television journalists Afghan women television journalists Afghan television presenters BBC newsreaders and journalists British women television journalists BBC World News BBC World Service people 21st-century British women writers Afghan women short story writers Afghan short story writers Pashtun women 21st-century short story writers 20th-century Afghan women writers 20th-century Afghan writers British women radio presenters Afghan radio presenters Afghan women radio presenters British women television presenters Afghan women television presenters British women radio journalists Afghan women radio journalists

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links