Documentary film "Afghanistan Unveiled" shown at university next week

  • /

Two Afghan women-a filmmaker and a humanitarian-will discuss conditions in their native country Monday and Tuesday, March 12 and 13, at Bluffton University.

In the first of three events that are free and open to the public, the documentary film "Afghanistan Unveiled" will be shown at 8 p.m. Monday in Stutzman Lecture Hall in Bluffton's Centennial Hall.

Mehria Azizi, one of the Afghan women who made the film, will be present for the screening and, afterward, will facilitate discussion of her filmmaking experiences. Preceding the screening will be a 7:30 p.m. reception with Azizi and Suraya Sadeed, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Help the Afghan Children and author of "Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse."

Sadeed will then give Bluffton's annual Women's Studies Lecture at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Founders Hall, addressing "What Social Justice Might Mean in Afghanistan."

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, Azizi will be among the participants in "A Celebration of Women's Voices," featuring readings, poems and singing in the Musselman Library Reading Room.

Azizi was born in 1984 in Kabul, where she also graduated from high school. She received training in video journalism in a first-of-its-kind Afghan Women's Project and began work at the Aina Media and Cultural Center in 2003.

Facing personal safety issues as a result of her work, she went to India with her husband and infant son in September 2008. Several months later, they received refugee status from the United Nations refugee agency and relocated to North Dakota. She and her family, now including two young sons, continue to live there.

Sadeed came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 1982 and became a successful businesswoman. In 1993, during the Afghan Civil War, she returned to her native country and was shocked both by its destruction and the horrific conditions for children.

That same year, she established Help the Afghan Children. Her efforts to provide humanitarian aid, medical care, education and hope have since benefited an estimated 1.7 million Afghan children and their families.