A Look Behind the Veils:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
Special Program and Screenings
Table of Contents
à Press Release
à Schedule of Events
à Filmmaker/Schomburg Scholar Bios
à Fundraising For Afghan Girls and Women
à Film Fact Sheet:
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
à Film Reviews
à BBC Country Profile: Afghanistan
à BBC Timeline: Afghanistan
à Film Timeline: Afghan Women: A History of Struggle
à Annotated Bibliography of Resources
à 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 For more information contact:
October 5, 2011 Patricia Keeton at
Lindsay Lewandowski at
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.
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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 long-time 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 income-generating 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.