Conference 2002



	Afghan Women Report: Achievements and Challenges One Year After Bonn Women for Afghan Women's Second Annual Conference Saturday, October 19, 2002 9:00 am to 5:30 pm Barnard College 117th Street and Broadway, NYC WAW’s second annual conference occurs one year after the historic meetings in Bonn, Germany. Secular and religious Afghan women who have been living in Afghanistan or who have returned from exile to help rebuild the nation will report on their work and the challenges they face as they fight to ensure human rights for women in the new Afghan society. Panelists will discuss human rights and human security, health and education, the economic prospects for women, and legal and governance structures that support women's rights and wellbeing. The conference will encourage dialogue and debate on the complex issues that Afghan women are wrestling with: religious versus secular viewpoints; the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) versus the state; and the role of Western women in supporting Afghan women. Conference Agenda 9:00 am Registration Barnard Hall Lobby 9:00 - 9:30 am Coffee & Light Breakfast Sulzberger Parlor 9:30 - 10:30 am Welcome by Judith Shapiro, President of Barnard College Conference Opening Keynote Address by Sima Samar Human Rights Commissioner of Afghanistan Former Minister of Women’s Affairs Held Lecture Hall, 304 Barnard Hall 10:30 - 12:15 pm Panel 1: Human Rights and Human Security Held Lecture Hall, 304 Barnard Hall Speakers: Riffat Hassan Eve Ensler Orzala Ashraf Eleanor Smeal Helena Malikyar Halima KAzem 12:15 – 1:15 pm Lunch break and Slide Show by Lina Pallotta The James Room, 4th floor, Barnard Hall. Room 405 available for prayer 1:15 – 3:00 pm Panel 2: Education and Health Held Lecture Hall, 304 Barnard Hall Speakers: Dr. Tahira Homayun Fahima Vorgetts Hassina Sherjan Zolaykha Sherzad Fariba Nawa 3:00 – 3:15 pm Break 3:15 – 5:00 pm Panel 3: Law and Governance Held Lecture Hall, 304 Barnard Hall Speakers: Belquis Ahmadi Hangama Anwari Daria Fane Marzia Basel Fatima Gailani 5:00 – 5:15 pm Closing Held Lecture Hall, 304 Barnard Hall Action Tables Women for Afghan Women has organized the following action tables throughout the day in Sulzberger Parlor, 3rd Floor, Barnard Hall. 1. Women for Afghan Women: information about how to join and/ or support WAW, and information about our BETTY RULES Fundraiser in October 24, 2002. 2. Women for Afghan Women, Afghan Women’s Fund: Fahima Vorgetts, advisor to WAW, will sell carpets and other imports and provide information on the Fund’s grassroots projects in Afghanistan. Learn how you can support these efforts. 3. Papyrus Books will be selling books related to Afghanistan and Afghan Women, including Women for Afghan Women’s own collection of essays, hot off the presses: Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future (Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press, October 2002). Please support us by buying this book; all money raised through sale of our book to benefit Women for Afghan Women. 4. Feminist Majority Foundation: highlighting their Campaign for Afghan Women. 5. Equality NOW: information and material advocating the deployment of peacekeeping troops in all regions of Afghanistan, not just Kabul. 6. Women’s Edge: material advocating that foreign aid promised to Afghanistan should not only to be delivered, but should reach women and girls. 7. Justice for Detainees and Not In Our Name: information on the civil rights crisis involving detainees in American prisons, and material demanding peace and immigration rights. Panelists Biographies Keynote: Sima Samar Former Deputy Premier and Minister for Women's Affairs in the Afghan Interim Authority, Dr. Simar is currently the Human Rights Commissioner for Afghanistan. Dr. Samar has opened many clinics and four hospitals for women and children and started literacy programs. She is a recipient of 1994 Community Leadership Award from the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation; the 1995 Global Leaders for Tomorrow Award granted by the WEF; the 100 Heroines Award granted by the Committee of 100 Heroines, New York; and the Paul Gruniger Prize, Switzerland. Panel 1: Dr. Riffat Hassan Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim feminist theologian and professor of Religious Studies and Humanities at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. Originally from Pakistan, Dr. Hassan is world renowned as a writer and speaker on progressive Muslim thought. Eve Ensler Eve Ensler is a playwright, activist, and the artistic director and founder of V-Day, a global movement that helps anti-violence organizations throughout the world. Her award-winning play, "The Vagina Monologues," has been translated into 22 languages and has run in theaters around the world. Ms. Ensler is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in playwriting, the Berrilla-Kerr Award for playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for outstanding solo performance, and the Jury Award for theater at U.S Comedy Arts Festival. Orzala Ashraf Orzala Ashraf is a co-founder of Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA), a non-governmental, non-profit organization that focuses on education, healthcare, sanitation, income generating projects for women, and counseling. Ms Ashraf has received many awards for her work, including a memorial shield from the Italian division of Amnesty International, and the Preimo Sabino Arana Award from Sabino Arana Foundation in Basque, Spain. Eleanor Smeal For over 30 years, Ms. Smeal has fought on the front lines for equality for women in the United States. Expanding her feminist activism to a global level, in 1997 she launched the international Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan. Ms. Smeal is currently President of the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF). Helena Malikyar Helena Malikyar is a Ph.D. candidate in Middle East Studies at New York University. Her academic area of research is Afghanistan. She has published and lectured extensively on the status of women and women's rights in Afghanistan. Halima Kazem Halima Kazem is a financial journalist specializing in Central and South Asian economies. She has a master’s degree in Business and Economic Reporting from New York University. Halima has produced documentaries for MSNBC News, PBS, and Associated Press Television. Panel 2: Dr. Tahira Homayun Dr. Homayun graduated from medical school in Kabul with a specialization in OBGYN. She did postgraduate studies in New York on a fellowship. Dr. Homayun is a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Fahima Vorgetts A native of Kabul, Ms. Vorgetts has been a lifelong advocate for women’s rights in Afghanistan. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from Kabul University. She has testified about Taliban abuses before the United Nations and other organizations. Ms. Vorgetts is a fundraiser for education, vocational training, and health projects for women and children of Afghanistan. Hassina Sherjan Hassina Sherjan is the Executive Director of Afghanistan Libre and Vice-President of Public Affairs for the Afghanistan Information Center. In 1999, in defiance of the Taliban, she opened five clandestine classes for girls that are still privately funded. Ms. Sherjan was Executive Director of Children's Voice, a non-profit organization providing educational and humanitarian aid to displaced Afghans in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Zolaykha Sherzad Zolaykha Sherzad is an architect, teaching at Pratt Institute. With Frederic Levrat she established the architecture office, ARX New York, in 1994. In 2000, she founded School of Hope, a non-profit organization sponsoring education for children in Afghanistan. Fariba Nawa Fariba Nawa is an Afghan-American freelance journalist and master's student in Middle Eastern Studies at New York University. She has written for the London Sunday Times, the Village Voice, Mother Jones, the Christian Science Monitor, the San Francisco Chronicle and Agence France Presse. She is also a correspondent for Pacifica radio. Panel 3: Belquis Ahmadi Belquis Ahmadi is a founder of Afghan Women's Network in Kabul and Peshawar. She is also the Afghanistan/Pakistan Program Coordinator for the International Human Rights Law Group. She has written extensively on the rights of Afghan women. Hangama Anwari Hangama Anwari is Vice-Chair of the Afghan Women Lawyers and Professionals Association in Kabul. She has been a Professor of Law at Kabul University and a Community Mobilization Trainer with the United Nations Human Settlement Program in Kabul. Daria Fane Daria Fane, a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department since 1987, is currently the Coordinator for Afghanistan Women’s Issues. She has served in diplomatic posts in Moscow, Tbilisi, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and worked on implementation of the Dayton Peace Accord. She brings a long-term interest in Afghanistan and the surrounding region to her assignment as Senior Advisor to the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, created by Presidents Bush and Karzai to help meet the needs of women in Afghanistan. Marzia Basel Marzia Basel, a delegate to the Loya Jirga, studied law at Kabul University's Department of Law and Political Science and clerked for the Afghanistan Supreme Court from 1985 to 1991. During the Taliban years, she established an underground school. Now a judge in Kabul, Ms. Basel serves on the juvenile court system to investigate juvenile crimes and conditions inside prisons for young people. Fatima Gailani Fatima Gailani holds a master's degree in Persian Literature and Sufism from the National University of Iran and another master's from Muslim College in London. A political activist for years, with the increasing deterioration of the situation of Afghan women in the 1990s, Ms. Gailani became more active on behalf of women's rights. Lina Pallotta Originally from Italy, Lina Pallotta studied documentary and photojournalism at the International Center of Photography in New York. She is a contributing photographer for the photo agency Grazia Neri and the Impact Visuals agency in NY. She received the 1998 Catalogue Project Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts for her ongoing project, Piedras Negras, which studies Mexican women working in the maquilladoras.