Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

This is the fifth floor.

The fifth floor, you knowsson.

This is the fifth floor at Farnak Amidi Sobath. This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world.

I'm your host, Faranak Amidi.

Valentine's Day is coming up, so we are going to get a little romantic.

First up, we have an Afghan love story.

My colleague Al-Fa Faisan of BBC Afghan Service left her home country of Afghanistan

when the Taliban took over in 2021, leaving behind her friends, family, and everything she knew.

But in life, you never know when love is just around the corner, as it was here in London,

where she met her husband and now father of her child.

Alia, welcome to the fifth floor.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot, Farron.

It's great to have you with us.

So, you know, before I get to your love story, I don't think many people will know an awful lot about how dating and courting and finding a life partner is like in Afghanistan.

Give us a picture.

So marriages are basically mostly arranged in my country and dating or courting is something like a taboo. People, nowadays,

young people would date each other, but secretly. In bigger cities, maybe, in Kabul.

Yeah, yeah, definitely in bigger cities.

And where people use smartphones, internet, they usually meet each other through online platforms.

Then sometimes, sometimes rarely, it happens to be in real life as well.

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