Expert Narratives

Suraya Popal is a senior researcher and President of the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan.

Abdul Qayyum Sajjadi is a scholar and politician, serving as the Member of Parliament for Ghazni province since 2005. He migrated to Iran following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Sahraa Karimi is a young female Afghan filmmaker who grew up in Iran. In her early twenties, she migrated to Slovakia, and spent the next 12 years studying for Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate degrees in film and directing.

Dr Ramazan Bashardost is a specialist in the politics of Afghanistan, with a wealth of experience in Afghan politics and diplomacy. He fled Afghanistan following the 1978 coup d’état, migrating first to Iran, then to Pakistan, and to France.

Born in 1964 in Kabul, Dr Alema has obtained a Ph.D. in Philosophy from a German university. An ardent women’s rights advocate, she founded and now heads the independent Women’s Political Participation Committee.

Wahid Ghassemi is a musician and folklore music scholar. He has worked as a singer and composer since 1977 and has conducted extensive research in native folklore music in different regions of the country since 2002.

Batul Moradi is a documentary filmmaker and writer. She came into the spotlight of human rights and civil society in Afghanistan by being the first woman to successfully challenge a baseless allegation of adultery made against her by her husband through the legal system.

Sayed-Askar Mousavi was born in 1956. He has spent much of his life in exile. He went to high school in Iran, lived in exile in India and Pakistan, and received a Master’s Degree and a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where he was a member of St Antony’s College.

At just 32 years of age, Farkhunda Zahra Naderi is a Member of the Afghan Parliament, elected to represent Kabul.

Seddiq Barmak fell in love with the world of cinema when he saw his first film, ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, at Kabul theatre at a tender 5 years of age. His film, ‘Osama’, was the first movie filmed in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and won the Golden Globe award in 2004.