Selected work exploring geopolitical shifts and their human impact across Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2023–2026.
Bagram Air Base: The Afterlife of America’s Longest War (2025)
Interactive Feature | The Washington Post
An in-depth investigation using satellite imagery and open source analysis to trace the post-withdrawal transformation of the U.S. military’s former Afghan nerve centers.
How Modernity is Rewriting Taliban Rule (Award-Winning Series, 2024)
Long-form Narrative | The Washington Post | Winner: 2025 SAJA Journalism Award & National Headliner Award (Second Place)
A deep-dive series examining how Afghan women in urban centers are defying bans through online education, digital influencers are challenging censorship, and some young Taliban members are grappling with modern temptations.
The series revealed trends that had largely gone unreported abroad, drew enormous reader interest, and was widely recognized. The South Asian Journalists Association cited it as an “impressive feat of on-the-ground reporting and source building,” capturing “the contradictions of contemporary Afghanistan through a deeply human lens.”
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
U.S. Weapons in Militant Hands (2025)
Investigative Reporting | The Washington Post
An investigative field report tracing the proliferation of U.S.-supplied tactical gear and weaponry among Pakistani militants following the 2021 American withdrawal from Afghanistan. The story’s findings reframed the debate about post-war weapons flows by documenting the tangible consequences on regional stability.
The Silenced: Women Under Taliban Rule (2024)
Front-page series | The Washington Post | Finalist: 2025 SOPA Award for Excellence in Reporting on Women’s Issues
As one of the few foreign reporters with regular access to Afghanistan, I served as Afghanistan Bureau Chief during a period of dramatic backsliding in women’s rights. This front page series, written under increasingly difficult conditions, provided an unflinching and multifaceted examination of the profound impact of the Taliban’s restrictions.
This reporting was widely discussed and covered, including by CNN:
An Unprecedented Deportation Campaign (2023-2026)
Multimedia Series | The Washington Post
On-the-ground coverage of the deportation of millions of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran. Reported from the Torkham border crossing, Kabul, and other places, this reporting led coverage of one of the largest and most rapid forced migrations in recent history.
Rick Noack 