Intelligence Squared: Lyse Doucet on Reporting from the Frontlines (Part Two)

Date: October 23, 2025
Host: Intelligence Squared
Guests: Lyse Doucet (Chief International Correspondent, BBC), Lindsay Hilsum (Channel 4 International Editor)
Location: Live at the Kiln Theatre, London

Episode Overview

This episode features Part Two of a live conversation between two of the world’s most experienced conflict reporters: Lyse Doucet and Lindsay Hilsum. They reflect on decades of telling human-centered stories from war zones, focusing on Lyse’s new book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul. The discussion traverses vivid storytelling, the realities of reporting from conflict, the nuances of Afghan culture (especially for women), the ongoing crises in Afghanistan, and Doucet’s recent frontline experience in Israel and Gaza during a momentous ceasefire. Audience Q&A explores the challenges, ethics, and risks of war reporting.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Vivid Human Stories Amid Conflict

• Capturing Normalcy and Humanity in Crisis:
  Lyse’s writing style is highlighted through a poignant wedding scene in her book, symbolizing shattered dreams at the arrival of the Taliban.

  “Her pure white wedding dress, gleaming with dreams, still hung on its hangar in her bridal changing room.”
  – Lindsay Hilsum reading Lyse Doucet’s description, (02:55)

• Afghan Weddings as Windows to Identity:
  Lyse explains the tradition of brides wearing three dresses, culminating in the white dress, and the emotional impact of a bride never getting to wear it due to the Taliban’s arrival.

  “She never wore her white dress. Because if you work at a hotel, they said, oh, that never happened before. We didn’t serve the lunch. Nobody ate the lunch. And they told me this story because their world was the world of weddings.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (04:27)

2. Food, Memory, and Afghan Life

• The Role of Food in Culture and Storytelling:
  Lyse discusses her affectionate descriptions of Afghan food and how cuisine is entwined with memory and history.

  “Food actually has one of the most direct paths to memory... our memories often go through food. And also, food is an expression of culture.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (05:47)

• Abida, the First Female Chef at Kabul’s Hotel:
  Through the character Abida Nazeri, a widow and the first female chef, Lyse shows the resilience of Afghan women.

  “She enters the story... after 2001, when the Taliban were toppled... Abda Nazeri, widow, illiterate mother of eight children, is the first woman to sign up for a job at a government hotel. And suddenly she feels she has her sense of self back.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (11:47)

3. Women’s Evolving Roles and Current Hardships in Afghanistan

• Memories and Realities of Afghan Women:
  Lyse reflects on both the nostalgia for earlier eras of Afghan progress and the devastation under current Taliban policies.

  “It was a time when women were starting to advance in Afghanistan… And so for me, in telling the story of the hotel, which is also the story of Afghanistan, it was really important I have a female character, an Afghan woman, to be able to tell that.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (07:48)

• Current Plight and Desperation:
  Lyse describes the desperation of Afghan women today and the responsibilities and limits of international journalists in offering help.

  “Not a day goes by… a young girl, Lisa, I want to do my TOEFL test… but they all want to get out, especially if they’re a young girl… It’s really, really, really desperate. Really desperate.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (31:17)

4. From Kabul to Gaza: Frontline Reporting in Real Time

• Reporting on the Gaza Ceasefire:
  Lyse brings a breaking perspective from Tel Aviv, describing the emotional and diplomatic intensity of the ceasefire agreement and hostage-prisoner exchanges.

  “Yesterday was... the grievous Gaza war finally came to an end... the deadliest day in the history of Israel… left Gaza in utter ruin... And it was such an extraordinary, overwhelming relief, unbridled joy. And we don't see that often, most of all in the Middle East.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (15:05–16:55)

5. Audience Q&A: The Realities and Ethics of War Reporting

• Scariest Moments in Conflict: Lyse recounts her first experience under aerial bombardment in Afghanistan, reflecting on the tension between perceived and real danger.

  “I always think it’s the first time you come under fire... it was a time, 1992... warplanes are going overhead... they dropped their bombs. And that was the first time. And I remember being really—because I’d never felt it before.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (25:56–28:17)

• Disagreements with Editors: Despite the challenges, both Lyse and Lindsay praise their editorial relationships.

  “I cannot remember a single time where they took issue with what I said… they also place great trust in their correspondents.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (29:13)

• On Empathy, Objectivity, and Human Stories: The journalists emphasize the need for empathy without emotional sensationalism.

  “Emotion doesn’t really have a place in reporting… but empathy, I think empathy is really, really important... all the stories… if you drill down, what are the stories about? They’re about mothers and fathers and children and families and streets and neighborhoods and cities. It is a human story.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (37:03–37:57)

• Broader Social and Political Context: Lyse also points out how stories of crises like Afghanistan are increasingly marginalized in the global news cycle due to new major conflicts such as Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza.

  “The great tragedy is that it hardly got any news attention because Ukraine, you know… Gaza, Sudan—Sudan’s not taking any attention.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (33:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Power of Storytelling:

  “Afghans are poets as well. All of the stories are true. All of the dialogue is true.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (10:14)

• On Frontline Witnessing:

  “This is the great, great privilege of journalism where you’re not marching on the sidelines of history. We find ourselves smack in the middle and you can just feel it, that excitement of being there.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (17:52)

• On Women’s Lost Rights:

  “The big question, of course, is what if there hadn’t been… what if Afghanistan was still a kingdom today? But it is a very, still, very traditional country. Even when the international engagement was there… the countryside was really where the military operations went on, not where things were being really developed.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (35:04)

• On the Nature of Modern Wars:

  “Women and children are not close to the front line. They are the frontline.”
  – Lyse Doucet, (37:24)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:55–04:27| Vivid wedding scene from Kabul and symbolism of lost futures | | 05:39–07:11| Afghan food as memory and cultural expression; role of the chef | | 07:11–11:45| Finding Abida, women's roles, post-coup traumas | | 14:29–16:55| Reporting from Israel on Gaza’s ceasefire, emotional impact | | 22:19–28:17| Audience Q&A—Danger, fear, and responsibility in war reporting | | 29:13–30:54| Relationship with editors and editorial trust | | 31:01–33:02| Friends and sources left behind in Afghanistan | | 34:01–35:57| Afghan women: voting rights then and now, loss and resistance | | 36:31–37:57| Empathy vs. sensationalism; women as the frontline |

Conclusions & Takeaways

Lyse Doucet and Lindsay Hilsum offer a poignant, deeply human exploration of what it means to chronicle war—not just the violence, but the ordinary lives it disrupts. Their commitment to empathy, accuracy, and centering lived experience—especially of women—shines throughout, as does their insistence that journalism is above all a human endeavor. The conversation closes with reminders of both the responsibility and limits of international reporters and the essential, ongoing importance of telling—and listening to—the human stories in conflicts often neglected by the global spotlight.

For further debate and to support independent journalism, visit Intelligence Squared.