On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - from 1:00pm - 2:00pm we had the pleasure of listening to Amie Ferris-Rotman, reporter for Reuters, share her experiences living and working in Afghanistan. Since December 2011, as senior correspondent for Reuters in Afghanistan, she has focused on the struggles women face eleven years into the NATO-led war. She scooped the story of a woman’s public execution near Kabul, which sparked global outcry. We gained insights on the true plight many women there are currently facing. Further the subject of violence against women is a critical global issue, which takes shape in numerous ugly forms in every country.
Presenting the perspective that the country has undergone 34 years of incessant war, she emphasized the courage of the women she knew there and the women whose stories she covered, rather than their victimhood. In particular she shared the story of Muzhgan Masoomi who was brutally attacked by her cousin. He claimed that she shouldn't be working, and continually harassed her until finally attacking her and leaving her for dead. Fortunately now, according to her parents, he is in jail for this crime. However, her debilitating injuries now prevent her from continuing in her former government job. Her father wept as he told Amie the story. It was he who insisted she get an education and he made many sacrifices to support her in her work toward her degree in accounting.
The underlying issue of security, or the utter lack of security, was a theme in the discussion we had after Ms. Ferris Rotman's talk about four different Afghan women she's known or covered, from very different walks of life. The Director of the Middle East Studies Center, Dr. Alam Payind, commented that none of his sisters donned the veil until the Soviets invaded, as there was a sense that women were no longer safe on the streets. It seems that 34 years later what began with reasonable fears has escalated into a circumstance in which no remembers the time when women were not only safe on the streets, but free to come and go as they pleased. Amie noted that men and women of Dr. Payind's generation have a certain grief due to their memory of how it used to be. One of the women she mentioned is a former police officer who is of the same generation. She is an outgoing, confident women who sometimes boasts about the numerous men she put in jail for committing violence against women.
This event was co-sponsored by The Mershon Center for International Security Studies, the School of Communication, The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Women's Place and the Middle East Studies Center
