Yalda Hakim: Sky News Career, Husband, Family and Background

Yalda Hakim is an Afghan-born Australian journalist and international news presenter who works as Lead World News Presenter for Sky News. She presents The World with Yalda Hakim, covering major international developments, political decisions and conflicts. Before joining Sky in 2023, she spent around 11 years at the BBC, building a reputation for reporting from difficult environments and interviewing influential political figures. Her career is particularly associated with Afghanistan, the country where she was born and from which her family fled when she was an infant. Alongside journalism, she founded an organisation supporting educational opportunities for young Afghan women.

Quick Bio

Early Life: From Afghanistan to Australia

Hakim’s background is closely connected to the issues she later covered as a journalist. She was only six months old when her family left Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s. Her father, an architect, and her mother, a midwife, wanted to find a safer environment in which to raise their children.

The family travelled overland on horseback to Pakistan before eventually settling in Australia in 1986. Hakim grew up in Sydney, where she experienced a very different life from the one her parents had left behind.

Her childhood helped shape her interest in current affairs, human rights and the experiences of people living through political upheaval. Her family watched news programmes together, and she became interested in journalism at an early age.

She has also spoken about her family’s involvement in human rights activities and her experience of attending Afghan school on Saturdays. These influences helped maintain her connection with her country of birth, even as she developed her life and career in Australia.

That background later became particularly relevant when her reporting took her back to Afghanistan. Unlike a correspondent encountering the country solely through a professional assignment, Hakim was also returning to a place connected to her family’s displacement and history.

Education and the Start of Her Journalism Career

Hakim attended Macarthur Girls High School in Sydney before beginning university studies in arts at Macquarie University. She subsequently pursued practical journalism training at Macleay College, where her course included a placement with Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

Her early career involved the less visible work behind television news. She worked night shifts logging news footage and later helped locate archive material. In her spare time, she practised scriptwriting and video editing, building the skills needed to work as a reporter.

She secured a journalism cadetship at SBS and continued her formal education through Monash University, studying journalism by distance learning while working.

This combination of newsroom experience and academic study gave her a foundation in both the practical and editorial sides of broadcasting. It also provided opportunities to develop her reporting skills before she moved into international journalism.

SBS and Her First Major Reporting Assignments

Hakim worked on SBS programmes including Dateline, Living Black and SBS World News. Her work took her beyond the studio, giving her experience reporting on communities, political developments and social issues.

One particularly significant early assignment involved returning to Afghanistan to document the country and explore her own connection with it. She also developed experience producing documentaries, a format that requires reporters to spend longer with a subject than a conventional breaking-news segment usually allows.

Her work gradually expanded beyond Australia. Assignments in Afghanistan and other countries helped establish her as an international correspondent rather than simply a studio presenter.

These years were important because they developed the reporting experience that would later underpin her work at the BBC. They also showed her ability to handle stories requiring cultural understanding, careful questioning and an awareness of the people affected by political events.

Her BBC Career and the 2021 Taliban Interview

Hakim joined the BBC after establishing herself at SBS. During approximately 11 years with the broadcaster, she became a familiar face to international audiences through programmes including Impact with Yalda Hakim. She also presented and produced work for other BBC news and documentary strands, including Newsnight and Our World.

Her journalism covered conflicts and political developments across several regions, including Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of the Middle East. She interviewed senior politicians and other influential figures, combining studio discussions with reporting from the locations where events were unfolding.

One of her most widely reported professional moments came in August 2021, when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan and Kabul fell to the group.

Hakim was presenting live BBC coverage when Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen called her. She took the call and conducted an impromptu interview while the newsroom continued covering the rapidly developing situation.

The exchange attracted international attention because it brought a Taliban representative directly into live coverage at a pivotal moment. Hakim asked questions relevant to the situation in Afghanistan, including concerns about the future facing its people, particularly women and girls.

The interview also illustrated the experience she had developed over years of journalism: making contact with sources, responding quickly to breaking developments and asking questions under considerable pressure.

In October 2023, she left the BBC after an extended period with the broadcaster. Her next professional move was to Sky News, where she took on a prominent role in its international coverage.

Yalda Hakim at Sky News

Hakim joined Sky News in 2023 as Lead World News Presenter. She presents The World with Yalda Hakim, an international news programme scheduled on weekdays at 9pm according to Sky News’s published presenter profile.

The programme examines major global stories through reporting, interviews and analysis. Its subject matter reflects Hakim’s background in international journalism, with coverage spanning geopolitical tensions, armed conflicts and the decisions made by political leaders.

Her work has included reporting on Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict, Afghanistan, Darfur and Iraq. She has interviewed prominent figures such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former US President Bill Clinton.

The move from the BBC to Sky marked a change of broadcaster, not a departure from international reporting. Her role continues to draw on the combination of live presentation, field reporting and interviews that has defined much of her career.

The Yalda Hakim Foundation

Journalism is not Hakim’s only contribution to issues affecting Afghanistan. In 2018, she established the Yalda Hakim Foundation to support educational opportunities and professional development for talented young Afghans, particularly women from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The foundation has supported scholarships, mentoring and internships. Its early work included a scholarship initiative connected to the American University of Afghanistan, helping young women access higher education.

Following the collapse of the Afghan government in 2021, the organisation also helped arrange the evacuation of more than 110 students from the American University of Afghanistan, according to its published account. The initiative enabled many of those students to continue their education elsewhere.

The foundation reflects a practical connection between Hakim’s public work and her personal history. Her reporting has repeatedly explored the consequences of conflict and restrictions on women, while the organisation seeks to create educational opportunities for people affected by those circumstances.

Yalda Hakim’s Husband and Family Life

Hakim generally keeps her family life separate from her broadcasting work. A 2024 interview published by The Guardian identified her husband as Abed Rashid, an engineer, and reported that they have a son.

She has discussed the challenge of balancing motherhood with reporting assignments that can involve sudden travel and extended periods away from home. The demands of international journalism can be difficult for any family, particularly when assignments take correspondents into areas experiencing conflict or instability.

Beyond these publicly documented details, she does not make her private life the main focus of her professional profile. There is no need to speculate about personal matters that have not been reliably established.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Yalda Hakim?

Yalda Hakim is an Afghan-born Australian journalist and documentary filmmaker. She is Lead World News Presenter at Sky News and presents The World with Yalda Hakim.

Is Yalda Hakim Afghan or Australian?

She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and grew up in Australia after her family settled in Sydney in 1986. She is widely described as an Afghan-born Australian journalist.

Which broadcaster does Yalda Hakim work for?

She works for Sky News, having joined the broadcaster in 2023. Before that, she spent around 11 years at the BBC.

Is Yalda Hakim married?

Yes. A profile published by The Guardian identifies her husband as Abed Rashid, an engineer.

Does Yalda Hakim have children?

Yes. Published profiles have reported that she has a son. She generally keeps details of her family life private.

What is Yalda Hakim’s religion?

Her personal religious beliefs are not reliably confirmed in the authoritative public sources reviewed for this profile. It would be inappropriate to assume her religion from her birthplace or family background.

What are Yalda Hakim’s salary and height?

A reliable, publicly verified figure for her individual salary or height was not established in the sources reviewed. Online estimates should not be treated as confirmed facts.

A Career Connecting Journalism and Personal History

Yalda Hakim’s career brings together international reporting, live political interviews and a sustained interest in Afghanistan’s future. From her early work at SBS to her time at the BBC and her current role at Sky News, her professional development has been shaped by reporting on consequential events and the people living through them. Through her journalism and foundation, she continues to bring attention to international affairs and educational opportunities for Afghan women. For BritInsight, her story offers a perspective on how a journalist’s background can inform a career covering the wider world.