Manizha Khan Part 1: One woman’s escape from The Taliban

The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast · Dec 19, 2025 · 1h 6m

A single act of kindness by a Red Cross nurse to eight year old Manizha Khan would change the course of her life forever – that one action would save her from Taliban death threats twenty years later and lead her on her journey to Ireland.Growing up in Pakistan as a refugee, studying dentistry in China and returning to Afghanistan as a highly educated woman during the country’s brief years of liberation, Manizha was bound to be a target for the Taliban when the Americans pulled out.Working as Dean of a University Dental School, as the Taliban rolled into Herat and shots fired outside, she…