to try and get into the airport and onto a flight. _ women have been completely marginalised since the taliban have come back to power. girls after primary school age cannot go to school. women are not able to work female university students have been told to go back home. taliban have been trying - to stop women in the afghan capital, kabul, from protesting against the restriction - of women's rights. human groups have criticised an all—male gathering of more that 4500 taliban leaders. girls�* education and women's rights barely rated a mention. hours after girls started arriving the de facto authorities announced they needed to go back home. how do you erase 20 years of women's rights? they've now been left - devastated by news that we've just received, that - secondary schools for girls will not be reopening. i've seen girls crying.

you will be teaching girls a bit of maths, a bit of education. those girls need to feel safe with you. and that will come through your attributes and through these skills. and they will look forward to it. what if you're not happy at all? should we fake it? i mean what if we are feeling pressure mentally, what if in your personal life? yes. 0k.

for that moment, just cut out my real life. i have worked as a journalist for years, and i have written stories of victims of war. which is a totally different. this is a positive, happy project. if you are happy to give it a go. that's great. 0k. going for a take in three two, one, action. i have two sisters back in afghanistan. they cannot go to school and university. not only them each girl in afghanistan. i know what they are going through.

how do you feel that went? i feel good. if you had to think of a criticism what would it be? my speed, it was fast i think. i couldn't tell when you were taking a breath or when a sentence was coming to an end. so if you felt it was slightly fast, then maybe it was just slightly fast. 0k? think about that. it was a good day. i was so excited about it this project is something i am in love with. i was about to cry many times today. but i controlled myself. i really hope we can do something for the teenagers in afghanistan. especially girls. they have suffered a lot.

we received 170 calls for help in the two days after universities and schools were shut for girls and now we get roughly seven to 10 new calls every day. i was not in a good place myself. i didn't leave home for 90 days when my friends were arrested. each time i leave home, i am afraid. if i say i'm not,

that's not true. i don't tell anyone what i do. only my mother knows. i started going to home schools. as a psychosocial counsellor, i teach girls how to be the best version of themselves, even at worst times. i tell them to write about their experiences. i tell my students: do not say the word taliban, instead refer to them as the government. for your own sanity. i said the government are afraid of you. that is why they might never open schools. but you have to study, you have to fight. are you ready for that? today we had a meeting, and we talked about our project to cover the second anniversary

of taliban coming to kabul. but i wasn't able to talk. it triggered me a lot that i was shaking all day long. it's been a long time. it still feels like today. this was the day taliban came to kabul. i was literally shocked. i filmed this outside my window. one week after taliban came to kabul, suddenly over midnight, everybody was sleeping. my family and i was sleeping. i got a call from the uk government, they told me to leave to the airport. in minutes. because i was working with the bbc,

i was a journalist. i had the opportunity to leave the country. i didn't have any suitcase. i didn't have my backpack packed and i had nothing. my family, they were not ready for this. my dad, my dad was crying. and this was the first time i saw my dad crying. i left to the airport. there was gun shotting sounds. just being a journalist, i tried to record things on my way to the airport. people, they were just literally sleeping on the roads,

and kids and women. it was just so scary, i cannot forget that night. i was waiting to enter the airport for 48 hours. night and day, i wasjust standing. no food, no water, i couldn't even come back home because everybody was pushing each other to be able to enter the airport. i don't know if i was lucky or not, i don't believe leaving my country, leaving my family behind, was luck. but i had to.

when i haven't seen any picture of the new flat i am moving to, i really hope that i can make it a home, because it has been months that i am

living in hotels.

on the 15th august, as much as i was preparing myself and my students, we felt utterly helpless. we had a simple conversation. schools were supposed to open. i told them they may not open schools any time soon. will we stop studying, will we stop fighting? i said i know that this will turn you into women who would never raise a talib. these girls don't have

anywhere to go to socialise. so they say here is where they can have at least some fun. women and girls are at home all the time. like during corona. for many, life is getting up every morning, praying, preparing breakfast, cleaning the house, helping prepare lunch and cleaning again. still the day is too long. they spend 6—7 hours a day just thinking what to do. their lives are financially hard too. one day one of my students came to me for counselling. i saw blood dripping on her clothes. she had cut her veins. i said, "god help me." she said it's the second day they don't have anything to eat at home. she said it's easier to die than to see her nieces and nephews suffer like this.

she's better now. she comes to my classes, writes stories. for me it's like i've won the nobel prize. hello. okay, there are some technical issues, so they've asked us to delay by a week. which is obviously a shame, but it gives us a bit more time to get things ready. one more thing. because we already know who is doing which episode, the episode that you are doing you'll say okay, this was for me this week. next week you'll have aalia and we'll have much more

exciting stuff for you. so they get to know you guys as people that they recognise. we can say, next week we'll be learning english and maths and also hearing about the women's suffrage movement. and the explanation of stories. 'cause we want them to come back. yeah.

tomorrow. i never imagined this word could bring me so muchjoy. tomorrow is exactly two years since i started my work with these girls. and it has transformed me from the dark, fearful, and pessimistic person i was, into a courageous and creative woman. these girls have helped me more than i have helped them. we are like a family. we support each other during hard times.

i think so. dari take one, wait. dari, take two.

it's so fast. dari take five. nailed it. yeah? well done, everyone. good stuff. it's exciting, - it's really exciting. when the programme first started my sisters and other afghan girls, they were all so happy. i received many comments on social media and they were telling me how helpful this programme was for them. it's also nice that we have been invited to uk schools to talk about dars programme in person. alright, hello everybody. so i'll let sahar tell you a bit about afghanistan, 'cause that's where sahar's from. i don't know if you guys know anything about afghanistan

or anyone else from afghanistan here? what's your name? sara. so i don't know if sara knows anything about afghanistan, i don't know if she has been there. you have been there? well, living, studying and working in afghanistan is totally different from the uk. it's so challenging. you have to fight for your rights. because basically now in afghanistan girls don't have the right to go to school. i have two little sisters back in afghanistan, they cannot go to school. which is so heartbreaking for me. that's why working with this project, it's so exciting. what happens if girls are able to be taught at home? it's not enough, even our programme, it cannot fill the empty space of school. but, we try to, you know, keep their hopes and dreams

alive by this show. it's been more than 2.5 years since the taliban took over, and, sadly, schools are still closed. but we, the bbc, decided to go ahead with the second series which is very great news for us and for afghan girls. bye, guys. have a good day. it was so nice to meet you. and things are slowly getting better for me as well. i've found a permanent place and moved in. we are like a family. we support each other during hard times. the other day they surprised me with a cake. their kindness leaves me speechless.

and i feel powerful with them. i hope for the day that we can live as free and equal humans under these guys. hello there. when it comes to rainfall totals so far this month, there's quite a marked contrast between the northwest and the southeast. hardly any rainfall

in comparison to what we should be seeing for this month, but further north and west, we've had double the amount of rainfall — over 200% in the far northwest of scotland and across the lake district as well. and in fact, that's where we're likely to see further rain to add to these totals to close out the month of august, potentially another 18mm in the extreme northwest, whereas hardly any traceable usable rain once again across eastern england and southeast england. so, for monday, we are going to see a relatively dry, quiet day. this weak weather front, a band of cloud, a few nuisance showers close to the scottish borders, northern england and north wales. to the north and south of that, sunny spells, breezy, but the winds not as strong as over the weekend, and it will feel a little warmer, which is good news for many as it's the bank holiday weekend away from scotland, so highs likely of 23 degrees. as we move into tuesday, central and southern areas

under this influence of high pressure into the near continent, but a toppling around that high is another low moving in, bringing wet and windy weather, but at the same time, the wind direction swings around to a southwesterly and just taps into some pretty warm air coming from the near continent. so, the rain still heavy as it moves out of the scottish borders and into north wales, but ahead of it, with that sunshine and that increasing warmth, we should see temperatures at 25 degrees. that's 77 fahrenheit. we're looking at mid to high teens across scotland. now, that weather front is not moving very far at all on wednesday as it continues to bump into this area of high pressure, so we could see this conveyor belt of rain just sitting across southwest england, wales and northern england for a time. and that means we'll see some increasing warmth. still a level of uncertainty where that front is going to be sitting, but potentially from hull down to the isle of wight, anywhere south and east of that could see temperatures peaking at 27 or 28 degrees —

that's 82 fahrenheit. we keep some sunshine and warmth, although not quite as warm through thursday and friday across england and wales. staying unsettled further northwest.

live from washington, this is bbc news. gunfire. mediators continue to urge restraint after the heaviest exchange between israel and hezbollah since the gaza war began. a british man working for the reuters news agency has been killed in ukraine after a russian missile struck a hotel. and germany says the man arrested after a mass stabbing

on friday is a suspected member of the islamic state group. hello, i'm carl nasman. welcome to the programme. the middle east remains on edge after sunday saw one of the biggest exchanges between israel and the lebanese militant group hezbollah since the hamas—led october 7th attacks. israel said it bombed hezbollah rocket launchers across more than a0 sites in southern lebanon, in what it called a "pre—emptive strike". hezbollah fired hundreds of missiles into israel in retaliation for last month's killing of a senior commander. sirens were later heard in tel aviv after hamas fired a rocket at the city. us national security adviser jake sullivan on sunday urged all parties in the region to de—escalate after talks in cairo to reach a ceasefire between israel and hamas ended without a breakthrough.