Yalda Hakim is an Australian broadcaster and journalist who has worked for the BBC and Sky News, and whose first run-in with the Taliban came when she was just six months old. She has reported from many war zones, and in 2022 she was nominated for a Peabody Award for... Read more
Yalda Hakim is an Australian broadcaster and journalist who has worked for the BBC and Sky News, and whose first run-in with the Taliban came when she was just six months old. She has reported from many war zones, and in 2022 she was nominated for a Peabody Award for her film Afghanistan: Documenting a Crucial Year. In 2018 she created the Yalda Hakim Foundation which supports the professional advancement of talented Afghanis.
After fleeing Afghanistan on horseback with her family, Yalda Hakim moved as a refugee to Sydney, growing up in a household where geopolitics and current affairs were openly discussed. She gained work experience on Dateline, the Australian TV show specialising in international documentaries and within ten years was their main presenter. In 2013 Hakim moved to BBC World News and spent a decade as a BBC World presenter and interviewer. She is currently Sky’s lead presenter on their World News channel and fronts the nightly news programme The World with Yalda Hakim.
Yalda Hakim has presented documentaries on people smuggling, the Nepal earthquake, U.S. Presidential elections and Mexican drug cartels. She has also worked as a war reporter in hotspots such as Syria, Iraq and Libya, where she covered the rise and fall of Islamic State. Yalda’s interviewees include former U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and H. R. McMaster, who served as National Security Advisor to President Trump during his first term.
Yalda is an experienced moderator and has hosted many events including the Nobel Peace Prize Summit, the WEF Forum, the Halifax International Security Forum and the Raisina Dialogue in Delhi. Her eponymous Foundation also provides bursaries allowing young Afghan women to study at prestigious universities including Oxford University, Georgetown University in Doha, Dartmouth and Brown.