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)
Security & Power | 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 (2024)
Political & Social Change | 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 surfaced trends that had largely gone unreported abroad and was among The Washington Post’s most widely read international coverage during this period. 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 investigation examined the decision to leave more than $7 billion in U.S.-provided military equipment in the country, documenting the impact of post-war weapons flows on regional stability.
The Silenced: Women Under Taliban Rule (2024)
Rights & Repression | 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 Kabul Bureau Chief during a period of dramatic backsliding in women’s rights. This front page series, written amid growing limitations, provided an unflinching and multifaceted examination of the profound impact of the Taliban’s restrictions.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Climate Change Tests The Taliban (2024)
Climate & Conflict Reporting | The Washington Post
The Taliban’s ban on opium poppy cultivation has dismantled a central pillar of Afghanistan’s rural economy, even as the country faces a worsening climate crisis. My reporting for The Washington Post examined how the regime’s failure to provide viable alternatives has left subsistence farmers exposed, with severe drought making a shift to legal crops such as wheat untenable. Meanwhile, in Kabul, officials are still grappling with how to reconcile religious doctrine with the growing scientific consensus on climate change.
Part 1 | Part 2 | ▶️ Video
Afghanistan After U.S. Aid Cuts (2025)
Accountability Reporting | The Washington Post
On-the-ground reporting on the humanitarian consequences of the Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts in Afghanistan, documenting the collapse of hospitals and rising hunger. Based on rare access to health facilities and affected families, the story traced the direct impact of U.S. policy decisions in a country where U.S. funding had previously accounted for more than 40 percent of international aid.
An Unprecedented Deportation Campaign (2023-2026)
Forced Migration Reporting | The Washington Post
On-the-ground coverage of the forced departure of millions of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran. Reported from the Torkham border crossing, Kabul, and other locations, this coverage documented one of the largest and most rapid episodes of forced migration in recent history.