By Sana Atef
Nasir Mirzaei, a former reporter of a local radio station in Kandahar, died of suicide on Sunday, December 18, colleagues say. He had been unemployed for a year.
A former colleague, who spoke to Zen Times on the condition of anonymity, says that Mirzaei used to host an entertainment program on a local Kandahar radio station called Zema. After the Taliban regained power, the station found itself unable to pay salaries and had to fire some staff, including Nasir Mirzaei. Another former colleague says that Mirzaei had worked for more than five years in several local radio stations in the city.
One colleague also says that Mirzaei got married last month and complained about “poverty and unemployment,” including writing about it on his Facebook page.
The former journalist was in his final year of law and political science at a private university in Kandahar city. “He was supposed to graduate soon and was supposed to defend his monograph [on Sunday, December 18], but he didn’t go to university and instead ended his life at home with a shotgun blast,” the source said.
Another friend says that the last year had been tough on MIrzaei. “He is suffering greatly from unemployment because he was responsible for taking care of his family. He got married a month ago and lived with his family in a rented house in Ainu Minah,” he says.
Suicide rates have risen since the Taliban regained power and the economy collapsed. The media has been particularly hard hit by layoffs and closures. According to the data of the Reporters Without Borders, at least 219 print, video and audio media have ceased to operate in Afghanistan in the past year, 60 percent of journalists have lost their jobs, and 84 percent of women media workers have also lost their jobs.
