A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Table of Contents
 Press Release
 Schedule of Events
 Filmmaker/Schomburg Scholar Bios
 Fundraising For Afghan Girls and Women
 Film Fact Sheet:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
 Film Reviews
 BBC Country Profile: Afghanistan
 BBC Timeline: Afghanistan
 Film Timeline: Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
 Annotated Bibliography of Resources
 Full Text: Afghan women's rights 'under threat' (Al Jazeera)
Ten Years In, Afghan Myths Live On (The New York Times)
Promotions and Media Kit: Students in Prof. Pat Keeton’s Contemporary Criticism: Film class:
Aaron Bastin, John Curcio, Jeremy Kelly, Lindsay Lewandowski, Bill Pivetz, Morgan Weinstein
Poster and Visual Design: Students in Prof. Sarah Stackhouse’s Visual Identity Design class
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2011
For more information contact:
Patricia Keeton at pkeeton@ramapo.edu
Lindsay Lewandowski at llewand1@ramapo.edu
Filmmaker and Afghan, Pakistan Scholars
To Present Empowering Story of Afghan Women
Mon., Oct. 17 @ 11:30 am in H-Wing Auditorium
Screenings | Tues., Oct. 11 @ 8 pm | Wed., Oct. 12 @ 6:30 pm
MAHWAH, NJ – Director Kathleen Foster brings her controversial and powerful tale Afghan Women: A History of
Struggle to Ramapo College of New Jersey in a special program, “From Revolution to the Taliban to the ‘War on
Terror.’” Foster will show scenes from the film and be joined by two international scholars from Afghanistan and
Pakistan to discuss and answer questions about the film and the issues it raises as the United States enters its
eleventh year of war in Afghanistan, making it America’s longest military conflict. The event will take place Monday,
October 17, 2011 at 11:30 a.m. in the H-Wing Auditorium.
Fahima Vorgetts, featured in the film as a longtime organizer for women’s rights and now Director of the Afghan
Women’s Fund, and Professor Shafiuddin Khan, from Pakistan, an educator and activist knowledgeable about the
region, will provide firsthand observations and knowledge of a region rarely available to Americans, with particular
attention to the perspective of Afghan women. Both are Distinguished Visiting Schomburg Scholars at Ramapo
College for fall 2011 and will return with Foster for a follow-up program on Thurs., Nov. 17, at 11:30 a.m. to screen
and discuss Foster’s new documentary, 10 Years On: Afghanistan & Pakistan.
Preceding the program, Foster’s film, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, will be shown twice at 8:00 p.m. on Oct.
11 and at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 12 in the H-Wing Auditorium.
With stock footage and interviews with women from Afghanistan, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle unveils the
horror women face overseas and discusses the fight for equality by Afghan women, from the turbulent period of
revolution in the 1960s and early 1970s, through the Soviet occupation of the 1970s, to the coming to power of the
Taliban. It also examines Afghan women’s struggle through the current U.S. occupation, with women in the film
describing it as “removing one group of terrorists and replacing them with another group of terrorists,” challenging
President George W. Bush’s statement that the people of Afghanistan are free. The film’s revealing content sheds
light on a conflict too often ignored or unknown throughout the rest of the world and puts emphasis on how the
political, social, and cultural issues affect these remarkable women’s lives and futures.
Vorgetts speaks frequently at conferences and universities as well as on television and radio stations, including the
BBC and NPR and has been published in the Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and Huffington Post, among others.
Professor Khan, an expert in traditional Urdu poetry, has been a frequent speaker at events and symposia
throughout Pakistan as part of the Progressive Writers Association, as well as working with the United Nations on
relief efforts during the 2005 earthquake and 2010 flooding.
The film, which has been called “exceptionally powerful” by critics and hailed as a “concise, well-made
documentary” offers a harrowing tale of strength amidst inequality and political and social injustice. The issues the
film raises still exist today, even ten years after the war with the United States began, with the justification of war
being to liberate women from the Taliban.
The Schomburg Grant Program is a Ramapo program that brings renowned international scholars and artists to
campus to serve as Distinguished Visiting Fellows at these special events. Support for the event comes from the
Schomburg Grant Program, the School of Contemporary Arts, the Platinum Series Grant, and Women’s Center.
###
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Schedule of Events
MON., OCT. 17 @ 11:30 AM
SPECIAL PROGRAM IN H-WING AUDITORIUM
“From Revolution to Taliban to the ‘War on Terror’:
Filmmaker and Afghan/Pakistan Scholars
On Afghan Women: A History of Struggle.”
TUES., OCT. 11 @ 8:00 PM
& WED. OCT. 12 @ 6:30 PM
PLUS FULL SCREENINGS IN H-WING AUDITORIUM
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
(2007, Kathleen Foster, USA, 69 mins.)
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle: This timely documentary
dramatizes the tale of a group of remarkable women, how their courage
and commitment to change their lives and country has passed from one
generation to the next. Their disturbing and amazing stories reflect the
recent history of Afghanistan during a quarter-century of cataclysm: from
proxy war to civil war, from a Soviet-backed regime to the oppressive rule
of the Taliban, and to U.S. military intervention and the current sway of
regional warlords and general instability.
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Biographies of Filmmaker and Schomburg Scholars
FILMMAKER KATHLEEN FOSTER
Foster was born in Great Britain. She has been a New York-based photojournalist and documentary
filmmaker since the 1970s. She studied photography at the New School for Social Research with Lisette
Model. Her photos have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Scholastic Magazines,
Time, Village Voice, Food and Wine Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Institutional Investor and Z Magazine.
Her work is represented in the collections of the Chase Manhattan Bank, The Museum of the City of New
York, York College and private collectors. Her photographs of Afghanistan were exhibited at the Leedell
Gallery in Soho and portfolios were published in various photography magazines such as Creative Camera
and British Journal of Photography. In the late 1980s Kathleen began her career as an independent
filmmaker, producing documentaries that address issues of social significance.
Official Filmography:
2011 – 10 Years On: Afghanistan & Pakistan, 30 minutes
This documentary updates Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, with interviews and footage about the
causes and consequences of the war in Afghanistan and its expansion and impact on Pakistan
2004 - Point of Attack, 46 minutes (also available in Spanish)
Chronicles the post-9/11 racial profiling, large-scale round-ups, detentions and mass deportations of
Arab, Muslim and South Asian men as part of the U.S. "War on Terrorism," framing the plight of these
immigrants within the broader context of the war against civil liberties waged via the USA Patriot Act.
2001 - Nicaragua: Reclaiming the Revolution, 49 minutes
Twenty years after the Sandinista revolution, a group of social activists from a Brooklyn, New York
church, visit their sister-church in Managua. As they travel around the country, a stark portrait of current
conditions in Nicaragua emerges, about how and why the revolution failed and of their continuing
struggle to fulfill their dreams of a just society.
1998 - Lessons from Class Struggle, 46 minutes (also available in Spanish)
The film follows the yearlong battle waged by parents, students and teachers to stop budget cuts to New
York City's already devastated public schools.
1992 - Cold Wars: The Battle in Rum Creek, 28 minutes
Filmed in an isolated hollow of West Virginia, this documentary shows the violent clash between miners
and the two giant coal companies that dominate their lives during a 1989-1990 strike. Wives of the
striking miners and a Black retired miner tell the story.
DISTINGUISHED VISITING SCHOMBURG SCHOLARS, RAMAPO COLLEGE, FALL 2011
Prof. Shafiuddin Khan, literature, Government Post-Graduate College, Bakh (A-K), Pakistan
Prof. Khan’s academic area of teaching, writing and publication is in literature, with special expertise in
traditional Urdu poetry, as rooted in the cultural tradition and practices of the Progressive Writers’ Association
(PWA) established in 1936 in England by progressive writers of the Indian sub-continent. Prof. Khan’s cultural
and social approach to poetry grew out of his undergraduate education in economics, where he began his longtime involvement and interest in community organizing and relief work with refugees and displaced persons.
With a background of service and training with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR),
Khan has diplomas from the Norwegian Refugee Council and field security training organized by the UNHCR.
Growing out of these positions, he was appointed by the Pakistan government to coordinate relief efforts with
the UNHCR and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) at the time of the 2005 earthquake in northern
Pakistan and again in 2010 in response to major flooding. He also worked with NGOs and local grassroots
organizations to address the failures of the national government to deliver relief materials to the Bakh region,
which left 75,000-80,000 dead and thousands more poor farmers and peasants displaced and homeless. These
efforts led to national organizing activities with students across Pakistan as well as support of labor struggles by
workers in two textile factories. During the 2010 flooding, in concert with the UNHRC efforts, Prof. Khan played
a leadership role in addressing the even greater death and destruction of the flooding. In addition, as a native of
Bakh, born and raised in the Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) – a self-governing state under Pakistani control but not
constitutionally part of Pakistan -- Prof. Khan has a lifelong interest is the history and current border dispute
between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Conflicts between Pakistan and India over control of Kashmir have
existed from the time of the 1947 partition of India to create Pakistan; an estimated 1-2 million people were
killed and another 10-12 million people were forcibly transferred between the two countries.
Fahima Vorgetts, featured in Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Vorgetts, now Director of the Afghan Women’s Fund, was director of a women's literacy program while
in graduate school in Afghanistan. In 1979, Vorgetts, then 24 years old, fled Afghanistan during the
Soviet invasion. She came to the United States, married an American, and is raising her family in
Maryland. It is her memories of childhood that prompt her to dedicate her life's work to improving the
plight of women in her native country. She said, "Afghanistan haunts me. It is my country, and my
heart breaks for my sisters who undergo daily oppression and hardship there. My passion and life's
work is to reclaim and rebuild the country so that women can be free and equal, and can live a life of
dignity, literacy, and financial stability." Vorgetts has addressed the United Nations and traveled widely
speaking to university conferences and religious organizations. She has appeared on many national and
international television and radio stations. She served as a consultant for two books dealing with
Afghan women, Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Reclaiming the Future and Behind
the Burqa, by Batya Swift Yasgur, a memoir of two Afghan sisters. She is currently a board member of
Women for Afghan Women and director of the Afghan Women's Fund. She is also an honorary
member of Afghanistan Organization for Human Rights and Environmental Protection. Vorgetts is the
winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for "Extraordinary Contribution to Peace and Justice"
awarded by the Ann Arundel Peace Action Organization in 2002. In December 2003, she was awarded
the "Human Right Community Award" by the UN Association of the National Capital Area. In
September 2004 she received "Most outstanding volunteer" award from Ann Arundel County.
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Fundraising for Afghan Girls and Women
About Afghan Women’s Fund
Fahima Vorgetts, Director of Afghan Women’s Fund (AWF), raises funds through speaking
engagements and sales of Afghan handcrafts. Several times each year, Vorgetts travels to Afghanistan.
She has opened new schools for girls and literacy classes for women. She has created incomegenerating projects for widows, helping them become self-sufficient, and arranged for the shipment of
medical supplies to Herat's women's hospital. She has distributed warm clothing and school supplies to
refugees in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Her efforts have touched the lives of thousands of
women of all ages and ethnicities.
AWF is an all-volunteer organization that builds schools and health clinics for girls, and community
cooperatives for women (shoras) to revitalize their lives in Afghanistan. AWF also supports other
women's organizations by offering private, grassroots education, vocational training, and health
programs in Afghanistan. AWF has been educating an eager population, formerly ignored, with the
encouraging support of the men of each community. Fahima's work, developing education, good
health, and industry for the women and girls has shown to be the only positive, peaceful way to enable
and strengthen the people of the region to resist the terrible oppressions being imposed.
Aside from Fahima's work in Afghanistan, she travels across the United States speaking to groups,
explaining her process of peaceful development, to gain support - ethical and financial - so she can
continue to do the work she has found to be so successful. All of her work, and that of her team, is
done on a volunteer basis. The funds she raises go directly to building more schools and educating the
populations she contacts. The more contact she has the more success she sees.
About Valley Caravan (www.valleycaravan.com)
Valley Caravan is a website created for the purpose of helping Afghan women. People can purchase
rugs, crafts, clothes and more. All of the proceeds from the Valley Caravan Gallery sales support the
many programs of the AWF volunteer organization. Not only does the money from sales fund the
projects, but a lot of the products are made by the shoras Vorgetts has started. For more information,
see the website at http://www.valleycaravan.com.
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Film Fact Sheet:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Synopsis:
Director Kathleen Foster documents a generational struggle of life and inequality amidst injustice and
war in Afghan Women: A History of Struggle. This timely documentary dramatizes the tale of a group
of remarkable women, how their courage and commitment to change their lives and country has
passed from one generation to the next. Their disturbing and amazing stories reflect the recent history
of Afghanistan during a quarter-century of cataclysm: from proxy war to civil war, from a Soviet-backed
regime to the oppressive rule of the Taliban, and to U.S. military intervention and the current sway of
regional warlords and general instability. With shocking footage of brutality matched with key
interviews with those in the heart of the conflict, Foster weaves together a harrowing story of the
strength and unity of these courageous women as they strive for freedom and equal rights. Through
their eyes, the film unveils how each coup d’état, war, and military intervention in the past 50 years
shifts the balance of power in the region and how the rights of Afghan women continue to get lost in
the shuffle. The immense timeline discussed in the film gives tremendous insight into a conflict that is
largely unknown to the world.
Release Date: 2008
Run Time: 69 minutes
Main Production Credits:
Kathleen Foster, Director
Distributor
Cinema Guild, Distributor (http://www.cinemaguild.com/)
Official Website:
http://www.kathleenfoster.com/
Detailed Film Overview:
http://tomweston.net/AfghWomen.pdf
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Film Reviews
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Highly recommended. An exceptionally powerful documentary. Should be required
viewing for history and women' studies classes. The elements of the film are sure to
invite discussion.
- Educational Media Reviews Online
. . .exposes the big lie of the U.S. freeing Afghanistan . . . makes the connection between
U.S. and Islamic fundamentalism, global and local politics, religion, money, and oil.
- Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian Author.
Foster challenges viewers to examine how Afghan women have continually borne the
dual costs of American imperial ambitions on the one side, and the barbarity of feudal
warlords on the other.
- Prerana Reddy, Director of Public Events, Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA
At last, a concise, well-made documentary chronicling the history of women's struggle
for their rights in Afghanistan. Excellent historic footage of pre-Taliban and Soviet-era
Afghanistan. Filmmaker Kathleen Foster (Point of Attack) casts her journalistic eye to
provide insight and a holistic view of the history of the Afghan women's movement.
- Nadia Hlibka, MESA FilmFest Coordinator
". . . the highlight of the ninth day . . . a thought provoking documentary".
- Miranda Husain of the Pakistani Times, in 2009, comments when Kathleen Foster traveled to Lahore,
Pakistan where Afghan Women: A History of Struggle was screened at the annual World Festival of the
Arts.
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Review: Films for the Feminist Classroom
Fluri, J.L. (2011). Afghan Women: A History of Struggle. Film Review. Films for the Feminist Classroom
(FCC). Online journal hosted by Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. (Issue 2.1).
Retrieved from http://www.signs.rutgers.edu/issue_2-1.html
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle.
Directed by Kathleen Foster. New York: The Cinema Guild, 2007.
Reviewed by Jennifer L. Fluri
Kathleen Foster's film Afghan Women: A History of Struggle (69 min.) provides a refreshing and rare
vision of Afghan women's complex and active roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the communist era prior
to and after the Soviet invasion and occupation in the 1980s. The interviews with Afghan women from
the diaspora who were actively involved in Afghanistan's communist party (the People's Democratic Party
of Afghanistan) provide a perspective that counters many prevailing representations of gender and of
national and international politics in Afghanistan. This film offers an important and arguably necessary
counter to the plethora of post-September 11, 2001, films about Afghan women that highlight their
victimization under the Taliban and glorify the U.S.-led invasion and occupation and the so-called
salvation/liberation of Afghan women. Conversely (and similar to many films on Afghanistan), the film's
title and introduction promise a pluralistic reading of "Afghan women," while offering instead a specific
and limited interpretation of historical and contemporary political events.
The narrative includes nostalgic representations of an imagined national past by Afghan women without
addressing the geographic and class-based differences between the experiences of urban educated
women in Kabul and of women in provincial rural areas1 . However, several poignant and important links
are made between Marxist intellectualism and women's rights2 . The film documents three decades of
political conflict and prominently concentrates on the perspectives of Afghan women from the diaspora
and their return to Afghanistan after September 11, 2001.
The contemporary scenes address the role of the U.S.-based organization Women for Afghan Women and
of local Afghan women leaders in the formation of the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights (2003). This part of
the film subtly illustrates ideological and experiential differences between Afghan women from the
Western diaspora and local Afghan women by juxtaposing their views on gender and society, including
women's presence in public and political life. Several scenes explore the tensions between women's
situated knowledge and conflicting experiences of communism, political Islam, and democracy along with
disparate feminist and counterfeminist visions for the country's future. The film’s conclusion shows the
signing and presentation of the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights to Afghan President Hamid Karzai with all
the fanfare of political theater; while the efforts made to enforce these rights remain quietly on the back
burner of state politics in Afghanistan.3
A decided contrast to Foster's film, Beth Murphy's documentary Beyond Belief (92 min.) also attempts to
show an alternative vision of Afghanistan and of U.S. geopolitical intervention. Murphy's film focuses on
two September 11, 2001, widows from Boston, Massachusetts, and their attempts to connect with
Afghan widows by raising funds through Care International. This film's emotive framing focuses on the
U.S. widows' belief in common grief across borders and their desire to reconfigure their economic
privilege in order to raise funds to support widows in Afghanistan. The film provides examples of the
gender politics and the social capital the September 11, 2001, widows harness to raise funds by way of a
three-day marathon bike ride from lower Manhattan to Boston. The many interviews and discussions
with the two women from Boston also illustrate their own ambivalence about using their social and
political status as September 11, 2001, widows as a fundraising tool and their wish to move beyond this
label. The naiveté with which the Bostonian widows approach assistance in Afghanistan through Care
International illustrates important albeit subtle critical moments. Conversely, the film assumes rather
than questions the effectiveness of aid, and it does not attempt any critical analysis of the geopolitics,
militarization, and neoliberalization of international aid in Afghanistan.4
Both Foster and Murphy include international and local Afghan women's voices and attempt to depict
transnational connections and linkages between women across ideological, social, cultural, economic,
and political boundaries. Afghan Women includes some of the tensions and divisions among Afghan
women, which remind the viewer of the dangers of reducing analyses or visions of Afghanistan to a
narrow gender categorization (i.e., women's abilities to overcome and meet across the
borders/boundaries of masculine politics). Dissimilarly, Beyond Belief relies more strongly on a narrow
reading of women's linkages across geographic and cultural boundaries, while simultaneously highlighting
the differences in women's lives and experiences across geographic space. The September 11, 2001
widows travel to Afghanistan, and the film attempts to capture the emotional commonalities of grief and
loss between the Afghan and U.S. widows, while highlighting the spatial and social divisions between
these women's worlds. Both films provide narratives and illustrations of gender politics that could
generate classroom discussions on gender roles and the use of gender as a political and economic tool. It
is necessary to show multiple perspectives of Afghanistan; showing additional films such as A View from a
Grain of Sand, directed by Meena Nanji, and Enemies of Happiness (Vores lykkes fjender), by Eva Mulvad
and Anja Al-Erhayem, alongside Foster's documentary would provide different views of Afghan women's
lives and social and political activism.
Jennifer L. Fluri (Jennifer.Fluri@dartmouth.edu) is an assistant professor in the Geography Department
and Women's and Gender Studies Program at Dartmouth College. She received her PhD in 2005 from
Pennsylvania State University with a dual degree in Geography and Women's Studies. Her research
interests include gender politics, geopolitics, social justice, and economic development with a regional
focus on south and southwest Asia. She has published articles on feminist nationalism, transnational
technologies and political resistance, the gender politics of "western" modernity in Afghanistan, and
the spatial and social structures of international aid/development in Kabul .
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
BBC Country Profile: Afghanistan
"BBC News - Afghanistan Profile - Timeline." BBC News. Web. 05 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12024253>.

Full name: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

President: Hamid Karzai

Population: 29.1 million (UN, 2010)

Capital and largest city: Kabul

Life expectancy: 45 years (men), 45 years (women) (UN)
Landlocked and mountainous, Afghanistan has suffered from such chronic instability and conflict
during its modern history that its economy and infrastructure are in ruins, and many of its people are
refugees.
Afghanistan has been torn by conflict for decades
Long fought over because of its position along the “Silk Route”
Since the fall of the Taliban administration in 2001, adherents of the hard-line Islamic movement have
re-grouped
They were at odds with the international community over the presence on their soil of Osama bin
Laden, accused by the US of masterminding the bombing of their embassies in Africa in 1998 and the
attacks on the US on 11 September 2001
The Taliban - drawn from the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns - were opposed by an alliance of
factions drawn mainly from Afghanistan's other communities and based in the north
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Film Timeline: Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Before Soviet Invasion: 1960s and 1970s
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Afghanistan was a constitutional monarch ruled by King Zahir Shah.
Seventy percent of the population was landless peasants, locked in a feudal like dependency on
wealthy landowners for survival.
Zahir Shah gave women equal rights under the constitution of 1964.
Zahir Shah did little to improve the abysmal living conditions of the vast majority of Afghans.
Mohammed Daoud, the King's cousin, seized power through a coup, abolished the monarchy
and established a republic with himself as president.
He opened schools and more girls were educated.
Soviet Invasion: Late 1970s
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The US provided aid - but that fell far short of the aid provided by the USSR.
The U.S. also established cultural and educational program, to win hearts and minds.
The Soviets sent in troops.
The Soviets sent in more troops, and the conflict turned into a proxy war between the U.S. and
the U.S.S.R. fought on Afghan soil, mostly in the rural areas, which lasted for 10 years.
Rise and Rule of Taliban: 1980s and 1990s
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After years of failed peace negotiations the Soviets finally withdrew their troops.
Women were forced out of jobs and schools, losing all the gains they had previously made.
Restrictions on women were increased and enforced by the Taliban police, including a total ban
on women working outside the home, going to school, or seeing male doctors
After Invasion: 2000s
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The US invaded Afghanistan, less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, forced the Taliban to
retreat into mountainous border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The U.S. installed Hamid Karzai as president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Women from all over Afghanistan and drafted the Women's Bill of Rights.
The Afghan Constitution was revealed. It did not include any of the women's demands.
Some local government officials and women's groups are struggling to educate women, to find
work for them, and to fight for women's rights.
The U.S now has 2 large and 20 small permanent military bases in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have re-emerged; Afghans are angered by the large number of civilian deaths
caused by U.S. air bombings and worsening conditions.
For women, Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
Timeline of Important Information from Afghan Women:
1973-1978
Republic of Afghanistan
4/78-1989
People’s Democratic
Party takes over by coup
4/28/78
Amir Akbar
Khyber killed
10/79
Taraki dead,
Amin takes over
1989-1992
1996-2001
Civil War between
Islamic Emirate of
Mujahidin and
Afghanistan
Afghan gov’t
1992
Women lose rights
10/7/2001 1/26/2004
US invades Nothing in the new
June 1996
Afghanistan to Constitution from
Taliban have taken defeat Taliban the women’s Bill
over most of the
country; Mujahidin
have moved north
9/2003
Women for
Afghan Women
conference group
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
BBC Timeline: Afghanistan (Expanded)
In 1953, General Mohammed Daud became prime minister. He turned to the Soviet Union for
economic and military assistance. Introduces social reforms, such as abolition of purdah (practice of
secluding women from public view). In 1964, a constitutional monarchy introduced, which led to
political polarisation and power struggles. In 1973, Mohammed Daud seized power in a coup and
declared a republic. He tried to play off the USSR against Western powers. In 1978, General Daud was
overthrown and killed in a coup. This began an armed revolt.
Soviet intervention: 1979-1988
1979 December - Soviet Red Army invades and props up communist government.
1985 - Mujahideen come together in Pakistan to form alliance against Soviet forces. Half of Afghan population now
estimated to be displaced by war, with many fleeing to neighbouring Iran or Pakistan.
1986 - US begins supplying Mujahideen with Stinger missiles, enabling them to shoot down Soviet helicopter
gunships. Babrak Karmal replaced by Najibullah as head of Soviet-backed regime.
1988 - Afghanistan, USSR, the US and Pakistan sign peace accords and Soviet Union begins pulling out troops.
Civil War and the Rise of the Taliban: 1989-2001
1989 - Last Soviet troops leave, but civil war continues as Mujahideen push to overthrow Najibullah.
1996 - Taliban seize control of Kabul and introduce hard-line version of Islam, banning women from work, and
introducing Islamic punishments, which include stoning to death and amputations.
1997 - Taliban recognised as legitimate rulers by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. They now control about two-thirds of
country.
1998 - US launches missile strikes at suspected bases of militant Osama bin Laden, accused of bombing US
embassies in Africa.
1999 - UN imposes an air embargo and financial sanctions to force Afghanistan to hand over Osama bin Laden for
trial.
2001 - September - Ahmad Shah Masood, leader of the main opposition to the Taliban - the Northern Alliance - is
assassinated.
US-led invasion: 2001-2003
2001 - October - US-led bombing of Afghanistan begins following the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces enter Kabul shortly afterwards.
2001 - December - Afghan groups agree deal in Bonn, Germany for interim government. Hamid Karzai is sworn in as
head of an interim power-sharing government.
2002 - January - Deployment of first contingent of foreign peacekeepers - the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) - marking the start of a protracted fight against the Taliban.
2002 - June - Loya Jirga, or grand council, elects Hamid Karzai as interim head of state. Karzai picks members of his
administration which is to serve until 2004.
2003 - August - Nato takes control of Kabul security, first-ever operation commitment outside Europe.
New constitution: 2004-2009
2004 January - Loya Jirga adopts new constitution which provides for strong presidency.
2004 October-November - Presidential elections. Hamid Karzai is declared winner.
2005 September - Afghans vote in first parliamentary elections in more than 30 years.
2006 October - NATO assumes responsibility for security across the whole of Afghanistan.
2007 August - Opium production has soared to a record high, the UN reports.
2008 June - President Karzai warns that Afghanistan will send troops into Pakistan to fight militants if Islamabad fails
to take action against them.
2008 September - US President George Bush sends an extra 4,500 US troops to Afghanistan, in a move he described
as a "quiet surge".
2009 February - NATO countries pledge to increase military and other commitments in Afghanistan after US
announces dispatch of 17,000 extra troops.
New US approach: Barack Obama: 2009-Present
2009 March - US President Barack Obama unveils new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to combat an
increasingly ''perilous situation''. An extra 4,000 US personnel will train and bolster the Afghan army and
police, and there will also be support for civilian development.
2009 August - Presidential and provincial elections are marred by widespread Taliban attacks, patchy turnout and
claims of serious fraud.
2009 October - Karzai declared winner of August presidential election, after second-placed opponent Abdullah
Abdullah pulls out before the second round.
2009 December - US President Barack Obama decides to boost US troop numbers in Afghanistan by 30,000, bringing
total to 100,000. He says US will begin withdrawing its forces by 2011. An Al-Qaeda double agent kills seven
CIA agents in a suicide attack on a US base in Khost.
2010 February - Nato-led forces launch major offensive, Operation Moshtarak, in bid to secure government control
of southern Helmand province.
2010 July - Whistleblowing website Wikileaks publishes thousands of classified US military documents relating to
Afghanistan. General David Petraeus takes command of US, ISAF forces.
2010 August - Dutch troops quit. Karzai says private security firms - accused of operating with impunity - must cease
operations. He subsequently waters down the decree.
2010 September - Parliamentary polls marred by Taliban violence, widespread fraud and a long delay in announcing
results.
2010 November - Nato - at summit in Lisbon - agrees plan to hand control of security to Afghan forces by end of
2014.
2011 January - President Karzai makes first official state visit to Russia by an Afghan leader since the end of the
Soviet invasion in 1989.
2011 February - Number of civilians killed since the 2001 invasion hit record levels in 2010, Afghanistan Rights
Monitor reports.
A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Annotated Bibliography of Resources
FULL TEXT ARTICLES IN MEDIA KIT:
"Afghan Women's Rights 'under threat'" (2011, October 8). AJE - Al Jazeera English. 3. Retrieved from
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/10/2011103887482377.html.
Women's rights in Afghanistan are once again under threat after 10 years of progress, according to two leading British aid
agencies, Oxfam and Action Aid.
Hopkins, B. and Marsden, M. (2011, October 7). Op-Ed: Ten years in, Afghan myths live on. The New York Times.
Op-Ed article by Benjamin D. Hopkins, a historian at George Washington University, and Magnus Marsden, an
anthropologist at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, argue that America must set aside the
stale caricatures about “tradition” that have long dominated thinking about the region, or 10 years of fighting, an
investment of over $400 billion by American taxpayers, and the deaths of more than 2,700 allied military personnel, not to
mention an unknown number of Afghans, will have been for naught.
OTHER ARTICLES AND RESOURCES:
Zarwan, E. (2001, November-December) Pipeline politics: Oil, the Taliban, and the political balance of Central Asia. A
Worldpress.org Special Report. Worldpress.org. Retrieved from http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/2262.cfm
The interim government in Afghanistan and interested outside parties will need to grapple with issues that have confronted
the region since long before Sept. 11. Among these is the question of Central Asia's considerable oil and gas reserves.
According to the Institute for Afghan Studies (http://www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org/). Since the demise of the Soviet
Union in 1991, corporations - often with government support - have competed for control of Central Asia's hydrocarbon
resources, in a battle that some analysts have called a new "Great Game" for control over Eurasia.
ALTERNATIVE AND INTERNATONAL NEWS WEBSITES:
World Press Review at Worldpressreview.org. is a nonpartisan magazine whose mission is to foster the international
exchange of perspectives and information. It contains articles reprinted from the press outside the United States, as well as
originally written material, foounded in 1997. As the space devoted to thoughtful, incisive reporting of foreign news shrinks
in the U.S. media, many perspectives of vital international importance are increasingly obscured or invisible to Americans.
Global Research at www.globalresearch.ca publishes news articles, commentary, background research and analysis on a
broad range of issues, focussing on social, economic, strategic and environmental processes. Global Research had become a
major news source on the New World Order and Washington's "war on terrorism". Since September 2001, it has
established an extensive archive of news articles, in-depth reports and analysis on issues which are barely covered by the
mainstream media.
Alternet at http://www.alternet.org/ is an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original
journalism and amplifies the best of hundreds of other independent media sources. Its aim is to inspire action and advocacy
on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, health care issues, and more. Since its inception
in 1998, it has grown dramatically to keep pace with the public demand for independent news, providing an alternative to
the commercial media onslaught. Our aim is to stimulate, inform, and instigate.
"Afghan Women's Rights 'under threat'" (2011, October 8). AJE - Al Jazeera English. 3. Retrieved from
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/10/2011103887482377.html.
Afghan women's rights 'under threat'
Gains made in women's emancipation in the past 10 years are at risk, two
leading aid agencies say.
Last Modified: 03 Oct 2011 12:57
Women's rights in Afghanistan are once again under threat after 10 years of progress, two leading British aid agencies have
said.
Oxfam and Action Aid said on Monday many Afghan women were worried that the impending international troop
withdrawal, coupled with an on-going effort to secure a political deal with the Taliban, could undermine their future.
Louise Hancock, the co-author of the Oxfam report, told Al Jazeera that women's rights in Afghanistan had made
some gains in the 10 years since the Taliban was deposed. But, she said, it was now "time to take stock of what has happened
and what still needs to be done".
At 2.7 million, half of the nation's school-aged girls have gained access to education. For Oxfam, this increased
access to education is seen as marked improvement over the five-year period under the Taliban when education of girls was
outlawed entirely.
Politically, nearly 28 per cent of seats in the nation's parliament have gone to women. Though it may be the result of
a quota, that figure puts Afghanistan near the top in terms of world-wide female parliamentary representation.
'Sacrificing' women's rights
However, the Oxfam report sees increasing violence in the nation as a sign of trouble ahead for women's rights. Hancock,
who says "women are particularly vulnerable to insecurity", sees increased violence as particularly troubling to the
nation's more than 15 million women.
"What is life going to be like for us in the next 10 years? Already life is getting tougher for Afghan women," said
Oxfam report co-author Orzala Ashraf Nemat.
From a legal standpoint, the group sees a dangerous precedent in the implementation of a law against honour killings
and child marriage.
Though the report finds that 87 per cent of women have suffered "physical, sexual or psychological violence or
forced marriage", the law will only be implemented in 10 of the nation’s 34 provinces. This outcome is indicative of a sharp
contrast in the experience of women in larger cities and rural areas highlighted in the report.
The report also points to "willingness to sacrifice women's rights for political ends" among the administration of
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, as a sign of potential trouble.
In 2009, Karzai faced international scrutiny for signing the Shi’a Family Law, which included a controversial provision that
human rights groups said amounted to legalised rape.
Facing pressure domestically and abroad, Karzai would later revise the law saying he was not aware of the provision in
question.
As girls' schools continue to face attack, and the movement of women is still heavily restricted in Taliban-controlled
areas, rights workers fear the Karzai government may be too willing to concede women's rights in negotiations with the
insurgent group.
"Afghan women want peace, not a stitch-up deal that will confine us to our homes again," says Nemat.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
Hopkins, B. and Marsden, M. (2011, October 7). Op-Ed: Ten years in, Afghan myths live on. The New
York Times.
The New York Times
October 7, 2011
Ten Years In, Afghan Myths Live On
By BENJAMIN D. HOPKINS and MAGNUS MARSDEN
TEN years after invading Afghanistan, on Oct. 7, 2001, the obvious question is whether or not the United States has won the
war. Osama bin Laden’s death suggests the defeat of Al Qaeda. But even after the planned withdrawal of 30,000 American
troops by late 2012, nearly 70,000 will remain on the ground.
Despite all the talk about counterterrorism, the war has never been so narrowly conceived or fought. The United States and its
allies have consistently pursued a mission of state-building. The current American strategy of handing over “ownership” of
the war rests on obtaining local “buy in” — both to the counterinsurgency as well as the larger state-building project — by
winning Afghan “hearts and minds.”
But this approach has been tried, and failed, in the past. Indeed, the British Empire followed the same flawed strategy more
than a century ago.
Nearly all elements of the current counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, from “clear and hold” tactics to arming “tribal
militias,” have their origins in the activities of British colonial administrators. The most important of these was Sir Robert
Groves Sandeman, who in 1891 insisted that to control the people of the Afghan frontier, the British had to appeal to their
“hearts and minds” (and pockets).
By “knowing the tribes,” Sir Robert believed he could rule them through their “traditions” — something both more legitimate
in the eyes of the tribesmen and cheaper for the colonial state. However, many of the “traditions” he employed were at least
partly colonial creations.
Sir Robert recruited locals into state-sponsored militias to police themselves. But rather than bolstering state authority, Sir
Robert planted the seeds of discord. Arming local factions proved a poor instrument for establishing central control. The
people of the frontier came to inhabit a nebulous no-man’s land where the state exercised little control over them. Today, this
area is known as Pakistan’s Tribal Areas.
The United States and its allies have largely mimicked the policies of British India’s frontier administrators. They have made
extensive use of what they understand to be “native traditions” to bolster their authority. American soldiers sit in tribal jirgas,
or assemblies, to win the support of local elders; tribal militias called arbakai are recruited to police the populace. But rather
than showing the sophistication of the military’s cultural knowledge, these efforts merely demonstrate to Afghans the
coalition’s poor understanding of local cultures.
The arbakai, an institution foreign to northern Afghanistan, may in fact lead people there to consider the Taliban favorably.
As one local from Kunduz told us, “Before, there were people who were with the government by day and Taliban by night.
Now there are people who are arbakai in the day and thieves at night.” Even authority figures in regions where the arbakai is
indigenous, like Paktia Province, told us that it “won’t work now: 30 years of war means that everybody acts independently,
not according to tradition.”
Afghanistan is not a country of primitive tribes cut off from the modern world. The singular focus on tribes, the Taliban, and
ethnicity as the keys to understanding and resolving the conflict misses the nuances of the region’s past and present. Rather
than fanatical tribesmen or poor victims in need of aid, many of these people are active and capable participants in a
globalized economy.
The international focus on “corruption” tends to paint Afghan merchants as venal and incapable. Afghan entrepreneurs are
dismissed as immoral profiteers, cronies of warlords or international drug smugglers. Such views are dangerous: these are the
people who will fill the void left when international subsidies to the Afghan government end.
In fact, Afghan merchants play important economic roles at home and abroad. They export used Japanese cars from Dubai to
Central Asia and precious stones to Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. They sell medicinal plants to India and Germany and
regularly cross the region seeking new economic opportunities, connecting Afghans with the world beyond. In spite of
Afghanistan’s poverty, these traders are central to the economy and critically important to the stability of the Afghan state.
Like the fixation on tribal tradition, the West’s obsession with corruption obscures the intricate social and economic networks
that define modern Afghanistan. As the British experience of the late 19th century shows, a simplistic and unceasing focus on
“tradition” as an exit strategy will not establish a stable Afghan state.
If America and its allies hope to identify and partner with Afghans who are willing and able to build a stable political and
economic future, they must set aside the stale caricatures about “tradition” that have long dominated thinking about the
region.
Unless they do, 10 years of fighting, an investment of over $400 billion by American taxpayers, and the deaths of more than
2,700 allied military personnel, not to mention an unknown number of Afghans, will have been for naught.
Benjamin D. Hopkins, a historian at George Washington University, and Magnus Marsden, an anthropologist at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London, are the authors of “Fragments of the Afghan Frontier.”