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Women

Abdul Qayyum Sajjadi: “It is difficult to leave the tribal, misogynist and monopolist approach behind”

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.

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Sahraa Karimi: “The taste of freedom is a powerful antidote to oppression”

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.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Dr Ramazan Bashardost: “Our leaders push their people over the cliff”

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.

Monday 17 March 2014

Dr Alema: ‘We need a national campaign against illiteracy’

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.

Friday 14 March 2014

Wahid Ghassemi: “I belong to the land called Afghanistan”

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.

Thursday 13 March 2014

Batul Moradi: “A little light is better than absolute darkness”

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.

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Sayed-Askar Mousavi: “Afghanistan needs educated women to combat reactionaries”

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.

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Farkhunda Zahra Naderi: “A culture of war is not the Afghan culture”

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

Monday 10 March 2014

Seddiq Barmak: “I couldn’t speak up, I couldn’t breathe”

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.

Friday 7 March 2014

Najiba Ayubi: “You do realise that you are a woman?”

Najiba Ayubi is a journalist and activist for human rights and freedom of the press. She is the Director of the Killid Group, a non-profit Afghan media network encompassing press, radio, and online outlets with a national reach. Ayubi left Afghanistan with her family when the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996.

Thursday 6 March 2014