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The Monocle Daily
Donald Trump doubles down on calls for an end to the filibuster after Democrat wins
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- [00:02]
Joanna Moser
Every day, the world presents you with hundreds of headlines. What do you believe? Who do you trust? The Financial Times cuts through complexity with clarity, accuracy and global perspective. Its journalism is guided by independence, not agendas. That's why leaders in business, policy and culture turn to one trusted source for facts, for insight, for what matters next. Source FT Read more and subscribe@ft.com you're listening to the Monocle Daily, first broadcast on the 5th of November, 2025 on Monocle Radio.
- [00:43]
Andrew Muller
New York City has new mayor. US President has new thing to be mad about. The Czech Republic's own Donald Trump analogue appears set for another shot at governing. And Switzerland tries again to protect a particular cheese. Where there's a will, there's a way joke that really only works if it's clear that this is whey, spelt whey, as in the cheese manufacturing byproduct made famous by Little Miss Muffet. I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts now. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily, coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My guests, Tessa Shashkovitz and Ben Kelly will discuss today's big stories. And we'll hear from Aziza Akrami, Afghan youth representative to the United Nations. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monacle Daily. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller and I'm joined today by Tessa Shishkovitz, UK correspondent for Falter magazine, and by Ben Kelly, senior audience editor at Newsweek. Hello to you both.
- [01:59]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Hello.
- [01:59]
Andrew Muller
You have Tessa, recently returned from San Francisco, which is about to be germane to our discussions. We will be talking about the prospect of an AI bubble later in the show. But you were there as the vote gathered momentum towards the redistricting thing.
- [02:15]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Yeah, I thought it was totally interesting because there was Halloween week in San Francisco, so people were partying endlessly, all the grown ups in full costume for days, and they were all going to vote for Proposition 50. So it was quite interesting to see how engaged people are. They're definitely engaged. The whole Silicon Valley was thinking, even if they were not so sure at the beginning of the Trump administration, if deregulation coming from the White House wouldn't be a good thing for them. The young people I spoke to are definitely not in the camp to let this thing go on longer than necessary.
- [02:53]
Andrew Muller
We will be returning to San Francisco later in the show. But, Ben, you have not been to San Francisco or indeed really anywhere of late, except to the theatre.
- [03:03]
Ben Kelly
Yes, I've been to Islington, which is, you know, far away.
- [03:07]
Andrew Muller
Not that far away.
- [03:08]
Ben Kelly
Yeah. No. I really wanted to recommend a play I went to see this week, which is an adaptation of the Line of Beauty, the Alan Hollinghurst novel, which many people Will Love from 2004. It's been adapted for TV and radio and all sorts, but the first time it's been put on stage by the playwright Jack Holden, a very, very great production, it's sold out, which is a terrible time to be giving a recommendation for the Alameda performance. But I have it on fairly, you know, background information that we could be seeing that on the West End very soon. And therefore you'll want to get your tickets in when that moment comes.
- [03:40]
Andrew Muller
Well, we will start in New York City, which has a new mayor who may already be the subject of more beard scratching op EDS about what his election means than every previous occupant of the office combined. Zoram Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, won handily against a field including Eric Adams, the current mayor, Andrew Cuomo, a former governor of New York, and Curtis Sliwa, a dingbat in a beret. In other elections held yesterday, Democrats won gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia. I'm just pointing that out as an excuse to say gubernatorial, which is an excellent word, rebukes to which President Donald Trump is responding with his customary philosophical grace. Mayor Elect Mundani also had a message for the US President. So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up. So hear me, President Trump, when I say this, to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us. ZAHRA mamdani, NEW well, Mayor elect, as he now is, of New York City, Tessa, this is not surprising given the way polls have been tracking. It was a surprise when he first burst onto the scene as a prospective mayor. But I think we've all got used to the idea that he was going to win. Now that he has, though, how big a moment potentially is this?
- [05:12]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Well, it will be very difficult for him, of course, to manage New York in different ways as it has been managed so far as a big global city. A lot of wealthy people who are totally scared of him taking over, a lot of voters now that will expect him to actually change something and freeze rents, that it's very difficult to do all these things or implement things that people will actually feel in their pocket. But on the other hand, I think the excitement about him and there was a lot of also misinformation against him, I think the main thing in his election success is that a new generation in the Democratic Party is coming up. So he's a mayor, he's by far not sort of a politician that will not take on the White House, especially as he's not born in the US but it's a new generation. And that's also what we saw in the other elections yesterday, younger people. And that was for a long time the problem of the Democratic Party, that the Biden generation did not let them come up early enough to take over to excite people who are younger than 80 to actually go in for something new. And because he has this progressive angle also, I mean, this is one wing of the party, but I think it's high time that there is something like progressive politics also getting the ear of the population that is now under the influence of this extremely right wing rhetoric that the Trump administration is bringing out, as if it's okay to talk like this. And Mamdani, I think, had quite an authentic feel to a lot of people, and that's really good news.
- [06:54]
Andrew Muller
Possible lessons, therefore, Ben, which people are trying to extrapolate for how the Democratic Party can adjust to the current moment. But is it possible that the Trumpist tendency of American conservatism, not that they would ever admit it, would be absolutely delighted by the way this election has gone, because a Republican is never going to get elected mayor of New York City imaginably anytime soon. So if they're going to elect a Democrat anyway, if you're Donald Trump, the idea that they have elected a foreign born Muslim socialist is, is just, I mean, the jokes write themselves.
- [07:31]
Ben Kelly
Well, he loves an enemy.
- [07:32]
Andrew Muller
He does.
- [07:32]
Ben Kelly
And I'm sure he's working up some nicknames as we speak. So. Yes. And he will want an example of someone doing things very differently because he will hope that that fails. Obviously, that's. You want to have that sort of contrast. But we were just saying before, you know, I think what the Democrats have to do is try different people, try different things because they're coming back from a position where they did so badly in the election where Trump beat them, that why not try a left wing firebrand, why not try different people and have different voices across the country? Because sooner or later one of those is going to get to Trump where it really hurts. Rather than someone like Mamdani, who he seems to enjoy sort of mocking. He's not scared of him. He's sort of, you know, he's sort of punching down, as it were. But by opening up the primaries, by offering New opportunities. You never know what kind of new party they could build up and what really could get to the Republicans. I mean, J.D. vance tweeted this afternoon in response, and one of the things he said was, you know, I care about my fellow citizens being able to afford a decent life. And it was almost saying exactly the same thing as what Mount Danny's saying. But obviously from his implication is we'll do it a very different way. And that's what they want. That contrast.
- [08:41]
Andrew Muller
Donald Trump has reacted, Tessa, by banging on about voter ID abolishing postal votes. So he wants voter ID to be compulsory. He wants to make it impossible to vote by mail, even though I think I'm right in saying that's what he generally does himself. Are those ne. If we, if we remove it from the, remove those ideas from the fact that Donald Trump is advocating them, obviously for, we can assume for fairly venal self interested reasons, because those are the only reasons he advocates for anything. But are those necessarily terrible ideas? Is there any reason why an election should not be, you turn up, you demonstrate who you are to the person checking off?
- [09:21]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Yes, there's a reason for that. I mean, first of all, America is a big continent. People are being born and registered somewhere and then they go study somewhere else. So male voting is absolutely necessary. And I think in the history of male voting globally, it's shown that the abroad male voters are often more liberal than the ones that are at home. So that's the reason why he wants to abolish it and also because it feeds into his conspiracy theories about election fraud. Because you can claim that people who are sending in an envelope are less checked than people who you see eye to eye. But I mean, you know, that's just not the case if you have a proper electoral system. And I was there for the election last year where this was discussed and I went to many of these extra meetings by electoral helpers where they were explaining how this works with voting properly and how mail votes function. And so this is, you know, that's where America is actually quite good in these things. So Trump doesn't have to be too worried about election fraud coming from the mail votes coming in from somewhere.
- [10:30]
Andrew Muller
Ben. He's also blaming the shutdown, which he obviously, as President of the United States and leader of the party which controls both houses, is absolutely powerless to do anything about. Are we baffled that anybody is still buying that line at all? I mean, this has been their narrative for now 36 days, that this is the Democrat shutdown. We couldn't possibly have Done anything about this if we tried. Who are we? We're just the government.
- [10:59]
Ben Kelly
Yeah. And they've kind of gone at it in a very aggressive way. You know, if you go onto any of the websites where Americans, let's say, access their services, like their Social Security or their SNAP food benefits, which has been a huge thing this week, that people rely and are suddenly not getting, you know, the tops of those websites, those government websites saying, you know, the Democrat shutdown has done this. You know, sort of blame your local representative almost. I'm not sure it is washing, you know, again, I was just discussing this before, but an isolated anecdote is the sort of Republican Representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene. She was on the View yesterday in the us, which is not her sort of natural homeland at all. They're much seen as much more liberal women than she is. But she's been very critical of her own party, the Republicans. She's been saying, we can't just blame the Democrats. You are in charge now. She's almost sort of maturing as a politician.
- [11:48]
Andrew Muller
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the voice of reason.
- [11:50]
Ben Kelly
Well, indeed. I think even, you know, I think I've never seen Whoopi Goldberg look shocked since the Ghost popped up in her 1990 film debut. But, you know, so, yeah, I think it's not gonna work forever because even people who are that extreme, traditionally on the Republican side, are saying, no, we bear blame for this as well.
- [12:08]
Andrew Muller
Well, to the Czech Republic now. But maintaining the theme of jurisdictions deciding to give eccentric billionaire blowhards crack at running the place, Andre Babis, previously prime minister from 2017 to 2021, appears to have assembled from the results of October's election a parliamentary majority. The plan is that his party will govern in cahoots with the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party, who are some distance even further to the right than Babish himself. And motorists for themselves, for whom cranky hyperconservatism is a secondary concern to the preservation of the internal combustion eng. As somebody from the neighbouring country, from the neighbourhood, are you excited about living next door to a government in which Andre Babish and his party are the voice of reason?
- [13:01]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Well, it feels just all too familiar. First of all, he was there and it amounts to, like, collective memory loss on behalf of his voters that they vote for him again. I mean, he was under very clear suspicion of corruption, of fraud, of tax evasion. And so they just vote for him again because he's rich. And people think, if he's rich, maybe we get rich or something. Although the economy in the Czech Republic now had actually been in quite a good state after the last coalition. So it's a little bit concerning. But that, as you say, happens a lot in the neighborhood. It happened in Austria where we twice elected as the biggest party, the far right. And they are also working together now in some of these coalition options that they are building. And the problem is that Babish, who it's a little bit difficult to build a coalition because a lot of people didn't want to go with him in a coalition, but that he picked the spd, the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party is really concerning. I mean, they're very far right. They're sitting together with the IFD from Germany. So they are not just right wing populists. I mean, they're close to being neo fascists. And then the motorists of course have their own issue because name says automobile Party and they will just want to turn down all the attempts by the European Union to introduce the Green deal and go deeper into a better, renewable future for this stretch of central Europe. And so it's actually quite a bleak situation that we see. The only thing is that although the SPD is sort of a Czechsit party who wants to leave the European Union, Babis himself, it's quite clear to him also, because he understands numbers a little bit, that the membership of the European Union is extremely profitable for the Czech Republic and that you don't just leave. So that's not going to happen.
- [15:03]
Andrew Muller
Is Czechsit really what they call it? Surely checkout is right there.
- [15:06]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Yeah, exactly. Checkout would be sort of the Andrew.
- [15:09]
Andrew Muller
Miller version, you would think. What we appear to see cracking here, Ben, is the idea of the cordon sanitaire convention that has existed among mainstream parties. And I'm sure Andre Babish would consider his party such that whatever the temptations, you just do not deal with the far right, you don't get involved with them. We saw that hold in the Netherlands, we've seen hold so far with Geert Wilde's Freedom Party, we've seen it hold so far in Germany with Alternative for Deutschland and a few others. But are we beginning to see mainstream parties realise that that's just not going to work?
- [15:49]
Ben Kelly
I think as much as you say, you know, the line has held in some countries, there are other countries where it has not, or, you know, more right wing parties have been elected as government? And you could argue, obviously you've got that sort of. You've got Hungary and Slovakia which kind of sit as outliers within the eu and maybe, you know, Czechia joins that who knows?
- [16:07]
Andrew Muller
I mean, we saw something similar in the Republic of Ireland when Fine Gael and Finna Foyle ganged up to keep Sinn Fein out of government.
- [16:14]
Ben Kelly
Yes, exactly. Yes, it goes on everywhere. But then the thing I'm drawn to in my head is Italy and people gave Meloni such a sort of red flag when she was elected. The background of the party, this, that and the other, and the sky hasn't fallen in. And, you know, a lot of these other countries would say, oh, maybe we want to leave the eu, don't seem to push that, as you say, for their own other reasons once they get into the levers of power. And to go back to Meloni again, what she's actually proven to be is quite an effective European voice, linking to Trump, et cetera, which is perhaps something that we need at this time, whether we like it or not. So these kind of parties do have their purpose and have proven themselves to be, you know, somewhat different often when they get into power than beforehand when we're sort of hearing about them, you know, through the grapevine.
- [17:00]
Andrew Muller
As you were saying, Tessa, Austria has had some experience of this. Is there any point in hoping that accommodating these hitherto untouchable parties in government either co opts them or neutralizes them or forces them to grow up a bit, or is that a bit optimistic?
- [17:19]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Well, Austria is a very good example for that. It does not work. I mean, they were thrown out of government after a very short period between 2017, 2019. They were in power and they were kicked, destroyed themselves with corruption scandals. So they were not fit to govern at all. But then people again voted recently them as the biggest party. They didn't get into government then. But so we can see that it doesn't work like this. And I think the danger now is that Babish, who sits together with Orban and Lupin and the far right Austrian FB in this party in the European Parliament, in the Patriots for Europe. I mean, they founded this in 2024. And this is sort of the launching ground for a right wing movement which is basically the Trump Party in Europe. So let's not underestimate Babish's background. And that combined now with taking into the coalition people who are really very right, is showing us where the direction is. I mean, it's not the majority, for example, in the European Parliament. We still have a lot of conservatives and Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals, you name it. But it's a bigger and ever bigger bloc. And the governments that are following this line now, the Good thing is that you don't have the same line towards the Ukraine and Putin. If you look at, as you mentioned, Meloni in Italy and also Babish might not be just in Putin's pocket as Urbanis and FICO is, although even FICO has a little bit of a more balanced position. So I think it's not going to be so easy to divide the European Union on the Ukrainian issues now, but definitely for things that are unpopular now, like the Green deal, which is a big shame, because if we don't stop the climate crisis now, I don't know when we will stop it and it will be difficult for our children to live on this planet.
- [19:16]
Andrew Muller
Final quick thought on this one, Ben, because here, in this country, that is the United Kingdom, I won't say we're staring down the barrel, because four years is a long barrel, but currently leading the polls here are the broadly analogous British party Reform uk, who are as like the parties Tess was referring to, sort of plagued with, to put it charitably, eccentric characters beset with scandals, people doing and saying things that polite society would insist that they shouldn't. Do we have to accept at this point that people are voting for these parties, not despite those things, but. But because of them?
- [19:54]
Ben Kelly
I'm not sure it's because of them. I think it just tends to be that it's quite, you know, Reform's quite a new organization. It's attracting new people, new faces, people who aren't used to being under a certain spotlight. I mean, they've only had seven MPs, right. And I'm pretty sure a few of them have already sort of fallen out or been struck off or whatever.
- [20:10]
Andrew Muller
I lose track.
- [20:11]
Ben Kelly
Yeah. How you would ever. The polls might say they'd win a majority, but you're talking. There's some 300 odd MPs, right? Where are you going to find these.
- [20:18]
Andrew Muller
300 very odd MPs?
- [20:20]
Ben Kelly
Yeah, I mean, where are you going to find them, let alone have them, you know, vet properly? I think they weren't vetted properly at the last election. That's part of the reason why it's got to this. I think people are willing to put a certain amount aside and overlook a certain amount if they think that the politicians are doing their bidding. You know, it's gone from, oh, that politician's just like me, I'll have a beer with him, to, oh, yeah, well, he does a bit of fraud. But you know what, he's gonna, you know, kick some immigrants out. So I'm fine with it. I think that's literally what some people will think. They won't mind. The only real problem will be whether those organizations can actually, actually withstand their own dramas, whether they, you know, or collapse underneath it. As you say, four years is a long way to go for reform.
- [21:00]
Andrew Muller
Well, to the exciting possibility that AI may prove to be this year's variation on NFTs or the metaverse that is a tech innovation that a small number of Californian weirdos had convinced themselves was the future of everything without stopping to ask anyone else if they actually wanted it. Amid a recent widespread lapse of tech company share prices, admittedly descending from vertiginous peaks, the trader Michael Burry, famous for cleaning up betting against the United States overheated housing market in 2008, has revealed that he has taken short positions on AI concerned companies Nvidia and Palantir and has backed his judgment to the tune of US$1.1 billion. Tessa, as we were saying, you are just back from San Francisco. Did your time there inspire you to take a billion dollar short position on Nvidia and Palantir?
- [21:55]
Tessa Shashkovitz
This is such a good question. I'm really sorry that I didn't sort of actually do this shorting already because it's probably a good idea to get in there quickly. But I had more an opposite impression that this. They are overpriced. Maybe now these companies, because nobody, even the founders like Sam Altman, are not really sure if they can reach the goal to create an artificial intelligence that is more intelligent than humans. But what is definitely.
- [22:27]
Andrew Muller
That's a low bar in a lot of cases.
- [22:29]
Tessa Shashkovitz
It's in a lot of cases, low bars. We discussed a few of the people already on this program today, but there is so much happening that is actually happening. So it's not going to go away. Artificial intelligence. It might be that the shares are a little bit less valuable over the next period of time when people sort of lose faith, as we could see already today in the markets. But in principle, I think it's very good to look back at when the dot com bubble burst.
- [23:02]
Andrew Muller
This is the early 2000s, the early 2000s.
- [23:05]
Tessa Shashkovitz
And what people then saw is that the productivity was higher after it burst in 2000-2005 than it was between 1995 and 2000 before it burst. So what we see now is an overheated market because people invest like absolutely crazy because everyone wants to be the first. If it's now Nvidia there or, you know, chips all this. I spoke to a few young startup people who are working in all the startups. And there's like a sea of startups that are now the next big chip company, for example, being built, which takes a few years. And so it's not easy to bring the profits as quickly as people would like to see them. But they are being built, so they'll be there in five years and that will be at a good moment. Where do you. During the time when Taiwan might be under pressure from China to actually deliver any chips to us? So all these things are happening now at a huge speed with a lot of investment. And so I think. I'm skeptical that it could be that the AI bubble bursts in financial terms, but it will not destroy the industry. And I think we will see maybe a balancing over the next years, but it will definitely be changing our lives. I mean, you know, this technology is just changing our lives as journalists as we sit here rapidly and a lot of other things, of course, the whole industries will disappear. And that is not something that goes away.
- [24:38]
Andrew Muller
Ben, it's probably not beyond the realms of possibility that Michael Burry is trying to spook the market into doing his bidding. If he sort of like swaggers into the trading floor, as it were, and says, I've just bet a million bucks that this whole thing's going in the tank. And I was right last time. I mean, that's going to cause a certain amount of agitation. But that notwithstanding, it would be more surprising, would it not, if there wasn't a bubble like hype around. Any technological innovation almost by definition generates this, as it did 20 years ago, and a correction duly ensued.
- [25:15]
Ben Kelly
Yeah, and it's not just another technology, it's a whole new way of life. It's a revolution of sorts. So we don't even know yet really what AI is capable of. These companies that are buying, you see Amazon doing a huge deal with OpenAI. These companies that are sort of buying up and buying into AI may have some idea of what they're going to be doing, but they certainly can't see very far into the future. It's blurry, if anything. So, yes, there is the hype, as you say. People want to get in soon, but, you know, I think maybe we'll just be seeing a bit of a levelling off at this point, as you also pointed out.
- [25:48]
Andrew Muller
Well, we will move along to the prospect of looming hostilities between Switzerland and Austria for the first time since the Swabian War of 1499. It's been a good ride. The Swiss are seeking to register a particular variety of cheese as exclusively their Own. And yes, the Austrians are going emmental. This is indeed the particular cheese in question of which the Swiss claim theirs is the only authentic variant. So there. Austria, which produces 14,000 tonnes of the stuff every year, begs to differ, as do various other jurisdictions. Switzerland has had its claims to exclusivity dismissed by various authorities before. But aghast reports in Austrian newspapers are stoking fears that the Swiss are gearing up for another pop at the EU Court of Justice. Tessa, is this the reason that you are wearing that colored cardigan today? It is. It is.
- [26:40]
Tessa Shashkovitz
We have to tell. We have to tell.
- [26:42]
Andrew Muller
It is listeners.
- [26:42]
Tessa Shashkovitz
It is.
- [26:43]
Andrew Muller
It is yellow, I would say even Emmental tinted.
- [26:47]
Tessa Shashkovitz
It has its Emmental tinted, but it does not have holes. I don't know if you're aware of what we're talking about. We're talking about the cheese that has these holes.
- [26:56]
Ben Kelly
I'm glad there's no holes in here.
- [26:57]
Tessa Shashkovitz
There's no holes in my jacket.
- [26:59]
Andrew Muller
That is true.
- [27:00]
Tessa Shashkovitz
Okay. So yes, I put it on, of course, in solidarity with my Austrian fellows that are fighting against having their Emmentaler being possibly renamed. But I think that the Swiss claim will run into trouble because I think they just missed the boat. If they would have registered their name because obviously there is an Emment Tal an Emen Valley after which this cheese is is named. But because the just next door in for Alberg, where Austria starts, has very similar conditions, the cheese also tastes rather similar and I have to say I'm not a big fan of it. So if it's for me, it can be named whatever. I will not buy it anyways. But it is. I think some of these origin battles have been lost. It's a similar thing that happened to the cheddar. I don't know if you in your areas know that because a lot of the English cheddar, the cheddar that's being sold in this country actually comes from Australia because they haven't registered it either. And everyone in the world can do a cheddar.
- [28:10]
Andrew Muller
Ben, would you like to make an especially militant case for either Swiss or Austrian Emmental?
- [28:16]
Ben Kelly
No. Well, first of all, I'm quite sad there are no samples. I was quite hoping for that. It's getting to that Oyer, I have.
- [28:21]
Tessa Shashkovitz
A bite of my jacket.
- [28:22]
Ben Kelly
Maybe with a drink. Yes, exactly. No, I don't have any strong feelings either way. If I'm gonna go for a cheese, I like a good blue stil, something strong. Especially going into the Christmas period. It goes quite nicely with, you know, crackers, wine grapes that kind of thing. So I'm really just thinking about that now.
- [28:41]
Andrew Muller
You're refusing to take a side here.
- [28:43]
Ben Kelly
Well, I'm Switzerland.
- [28:44]
Andrew Muller
Yeah. Okay. Well, I was kind of hoping you would be Switzerland because I assumed, obviously, that Tessa would be absolutely teeth gnashingly passionate about the Austrian case.
- [28:54]
Ben Kelly
Yeah. In that case, I will represent the Swiss. I mean, any country that can take this to the European Court of Justice, it must be a wonderful place to live with very few problems.
- [29:02]
Tessa Shashkovitz
It's quite a lot. That's quite a lot of money in the things. And that's why the French went through with a few of these issues. But I think it's really too late, unfortunately.
- [29:12]
Andrew Muller
Just finally, then, on this one, Tessa, can war be avoided?
- [29:17]
Tessa Shashkovitz
I would hope so. And if there is a real, real issue and if this is turning into the Middle east, then I think we can all go in and be the mediators there.
- [29:27]
Andrew Muller
Tessa Shishkovitz and Ben Kelly, thank you for joining us. Finally, on today's show, back in September, Afghanistan went dark. The Taliban shut on Internet access across the country, leaving millions unable to reach family, friends, or the outside world. One of them was Aziza Akrami. She fled Kabul after the Taliban takeover and has since rebuilt her life in Portugal. Today, she serves as the Afghan Youth representative to the United Nations. Monocle's Joanna Moser spoke with her and began by asking her how she felt when she first learned about the Internet blackout.
- [30:01]
Joanna Moser
It was a scary, scary moment for me because first my family, I didn't know what was happening. There was a different scenario. People were saying, what's happening inside Afghanistan? If there is another war going to start, if something else is happening inside Afghanistan, it was really concerning. My concern was for the people who were inside Afghanistan, and I didn't know what's happening to them. And also a huge part of my work, work, my advocacy work is related to the Afghan, especially Afghan women inside Afghanistan. And the only network that we can connect with those that we don't have a direct access is through the Internet. And hearing that Internet is cut off was really concerning for me. Then I was thinking that all these women that were studying through this online channels, all these women that we were help, were able to help them. Now we cannot reach them out. So it was a really scary a moment for me personally and also for people who are inside Afghanistan, was really scared and also somehow disappointed because this is the only window they have to access opportunities. And speaking of women, I mean, many say that this blackout showed how easily the Taliban can isolate people, how do you feel about this? This blockage was not only shows that how easily they can disconnect it, but also it shows that how much women and youth are in risk of invulnerable to this disconnection. For example, if this disconnect happen or this also become restrictions on the women and youth and their access to outside the world. It can affect them in multiple way of their living. For example, their education, their businesses, them being able to express their self and their opinion in a safe space. All of them will be taken out from them. So it is something that show their vulnerability and show there's no other replacement. And in case this happen, we don't have any other support from the world like we used to have in the past two decades from the international community. If this happens, it might take one to three years for other countries or governments or organizations to take action towards what's happening inside the Afghanistan. You fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. Can you take me back to that moment? What was it like to leave home behind? I made this decision pretty fast. It happened just in one month that I pack up everything. I resigned from the job I had and going to the office. We were getting stopped in the way. If you are a woman and you're sitting in a car, they will ask you where are you going? It is very challenging. Was challenging for me personally to be inside the country. And I was not seeing any other way to grow up myself, not grow up in this environment. And I feel till day this pain inside my heart that I see. There's millions of other women that have great potential. It is personally also hard for me. But same time I see the other people inside the country suffering. It is a mix of feeling. So you said you fled looking for an opportunity then and now you've made a new life in Porto in Portugal. Portugal. What's life like there compared to what you have imagined before? Life in Portugal is for me. When I started it was a bit challenging because of the language. And I have to start everything from the scratch. First step was to make a network, make friends, which Portuguese people are quite friendly. They're warm and was easy to connect with them. Although I don't have. I don't know how to speak. But with the English, they still can speak English. A pretty much of a life that is simple, but also more relaxed and you have time for yourself. And it's also very safe country, which I'm very happy. They are very respectful towards their women. I feel like I have changed in terms of my mindset and I have grown up a lot and I can live. I wasn't able to live very independently in the past, but living and moving in a new country, just being by yourself, I am now able to just live on myself and be more independent and build up something from the zero. And lastly, do you see yourself returning to Afghanistan one day if circumstances allow it? Well, this is my biggest hope. I can return back to my country. I can see my friends, the families and everything and the life I used to to have. I would love to go back to it and hopefully maybe in future and very positive thinking, maybe we'll have, I'll have opportunity to go on back to see them. I just hope that the problem of the women, Afghan women be something that other countries see it as their problem. Because if what's happening inside Afghanistan be normalized by other countries, it can happen tomorrow to any other country. And what we see right now in Afghanistan, not so many countries are reacting. Even some countries are recognizing this as a government, as something norm for acceptance and giving legitimization. So I hope granting legitimization not being the cost of women's right and their freedom.
- [35:46]
Andrew Muller
That was Monocle's Joanna Moses speaking with Aziza Akrami, UN Afghan Youth representative. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Tessa Shashkovitz and Ben Kelly. Today's show was produced by Hassan Anderson and researched by Joanna Moser. Our sound engineer was Steph Chungu. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time tomorrow. Thanks for listening, Ra.