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Please register for this free program, if you haven't already. After registering you will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom webinar login information.
This is our first hybrid event!
5:30 - 6:30 PM - Networking (in person only)
6:30 - 8:00 PM - Program (hybrid)
You may either register as a Zoom attendee or an in-person attendee. If you decide to change how you'd like to attend after registering, please send an email to info@indianaworld.org so that we have an accurate count of attendees for the refreshments. The Zoom link will be provided in the confirmation email.
Indiana Humanities is generously providing light refreshments and beverages. Free street parking is available. The event is wheelchair accessible.
***Mask policy: Please note, for in person attendees masks are required when not actively eating or drinking***
About the Program
An Afghan Perspective From Those Who Escaped After the US Withdrawal…and Those Left Behind
For twenty years, the US provided funds and support to educate and train young Afghans to bring hope and advancement to Afghanistan in matters of peace, security, and conflict resolution; education and health care; human rights and women’s rights; and to further an emerging civil society under rule of law. This came to a crashing halt when the Taliban – claiming they were “taking back” their country – seized all of Afghanistan and reimposed a rigid, authoritarian rule that undermined all these efforts.
Hopes of a more enlightened future for Afghanistan are not lost, however. Thousands of young Afghan refugees – all of whom came of age during those two hopeful decades -- remain committed to their country. They are eager to share their perspectives on the progress that was made under American oversight, what the immediate future might hold for them, and what is happening to their families, friends and colleagues left behind.
The Indiana Council on World Affairs presents two separate programs featuring young Afghan refugees now residing in the US, Canada, and Ukraine. They will share their first-hand accounts of life in Afghanistan, their harrowing escapes, and reflections on the future of their country.
All the panelists are graduates of either the American University of Afghanistan or the American University of Central Asia. Each is now working to restart a career in a new country while attempting to help family members still in Afghanistan to find some way to leave the poverty-stricken country as the population faces hunger and cold this winter under a strict and capricious Taliban rule.
All are invited to join either one or both programs.
About the Panelists
Ajmal Burhanzoi, currently a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto in Canada, was evacuated in August from Kabul where he was teaching at AUAF and conducting his dissertation research.
Suhailla Jalali served as Project Coordinator for the United Nations Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security on behalf of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Jawed Samsor, an adjunct instructor at AUAF, worked in Kabul as a Program Manager for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and was evacuated on the day of the deadly ISIS bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
About the Facilitator
Masouma Tajik, an AUAF alumna and former free-lance journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and data analyst who helped monitor Afghan humanitarian and development programs will facilitate this discussion with three other young Afghan professionals. As Masouma attempted evacuation, she was whipped by the Taliban as she approached the airport.
About the ICWA Host
Dr Betty Tonsing, visiting academic and researcher at the American University of Central Asia and founder of the long-running American Studies in Central Asia Symposium will introduce the program.