Podcast “Inside Kabul” Wins 2025 Rubenstein Library Human Rights Digital Storytelling Award

The 2025 Human Rights Digital Storytelling Award, presented by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University, has been awarded to the podcast Inside Kabul.

Produced and originally broadcast by FRANCE INTER (French Public Radio) Inside Kabul was created and directed by Caroline Gillet in collaboration with Marwa and Raha. Inside Kabul tells the story of two young friends whose lives were upended when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. As they faced an increasingly dangerous present and an uncertain future, Raha and Marwa exchanged and recorded hundreds of voice notes via WhatsApp with Gillet, a noted French journalist.

These recordings became the heart of the podcast, offering a raw, intimate, and immediate documentation of displacement. As the podcast describes:

“What emerges is a raw and incredibly intimate chronicle of two young women coming of age amidst the collapse of the world they had known. While Raha has chosen to stay in Kabul and is confronted with the violence of the new regime, Marwa has left and finds herself locked up in a refugee camp in Abu Dhabi.”

According to Caroline Gillet:

“Raha and Marwa showed immense courage when they accepted to document their lives under Taliban rule and leaving into exile. Their voice diaries are a powerful testimony of how life changed both for those who chose to leave and those who had to stay after the dramatic events of August 2021. New technologies can sometimes create unexpected proximity, and many people in Europe and in the States told me how close they felt to Raha and Marwa after hearing them. I’m very thankful that through this award, more people can get to know them and the terrible suffering of Afghan women under the terrorist rule of the Taliban.”

Patrick Stawski, Human Rights Archivist at Duke, said:

“Inside Kabul powerfully shows how audio technologies can serve to document, connect, and hope. We are intimately connected to Raha and Marwa’s stories through their voices and the sonic elements of their journey: falling rain at a refugee camp, the crinkle of a food ration wrapper, the sounds of a Taliban security checkpoint.”

Caitlin Margaret Kelly, Curator for the Archive of Documentary Arts, added:

“Being immersed in Raha and Marwa’s unedited audio diaries is to be invited into their lives in ways that bypass the usual narrative arc. In listening to the recordings, our pace is set by the two young women, and our view of unfolding events is powerfully constructed through their experiences.”

Image from Inside Kaboul animated short, by Luciano Lepinay based on works by Kubra Khademi.

In addition to the podcast, Caroline, Marwa, and Raha continue to use the audio diaries to tell their evolving story of displacement and rebuilding. A second season of the show, titled Outside Kabul, is now available in English on France Inter’s YouTube channel. In 2023, they partnered with Denis Walgenwitz to produce an animated short also titled Inside Kabul and are now working on an animated adaption of Outside Kabul. In 2025, they collaborated with Afghan performance artist Kubra Khademi to produce One’s Own Room: Inside Kabul, an immersive installation presented at the 2025 Festival d’Avignon.

Marwa, one of the three collaborators behind Inside Kabul, said:

“I began exchanging with Caroline and recording sound notes with the hope of being a voice for the people of Afghanistan—especially for women like myself who were deprived of their freedom and rights after the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. Today, Inside Kabul is part of my identity as an advocate for our rights. It is our way of resisting—of standing against this regime and the erasure of Afghan women, and against the gender apartheid in Afghanistan. This award is deeply meaningful to me, as it ensures that our voices will be preserved and accessible to researchers who can shed light on the reality of women’s lives under the Taliban’s terrorist regime.”

The Rubenstein Library’s Human Rights Digital Storytelling Award is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Archive and the Archive of Documentary Arts. It supports outstanding documentary artists and activists exploring themes of human rights and social justice. The award aims to expand the library’s digital documentary holdings while ensuring long-term preservation and access.

The award honors projects that transcend simple information sharing. It celebrates digital storytellers who create deeply contextualized, multi-sensory works that may include still images, moving images, oral histories, soundscapes, and documentary writing.

Winners receive $3,500 and are invited to present their work at Duke University, where they collaborate with archivists to preserve their materials.

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library has a longstanding commitment to human rights and the documentary arts. Its collections represent the work of global creators and document the power of documentary to inspire action and transform the world.