It’s 20 years after 9/11—what have we learned? In May, when U.S. and international troops began to withdraw from Afghanistan, feminists and Afghanistan experts warned of the brutal impact that would likely be felt by women and minorities with the return of the Taliban and in the vacuum of leadership. They were right.  

The Taliban have announced their provisional government, which does not include a single woman. What does this mean for national security? The safety of women and girls? What are the geo-political dynamics yet to be sorted?    

 Helping us sort out these questions and set the record straight are special guests: 

• Karen Joy Greenberg, expert on national security, terrorism and civil liberties and the director of the Center on National Security. Her latest book is Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump. Greenberg's work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The National Interest and Mother Jones, among others.  
• Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, award-winning author and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of The Daughters of Kobani and Ashley's War, and writes regularly on Afghanistan’s politics and economy, entrepreneurship in fragile states, the fight to end child marriage, and issues affecting women and girls for publications including the New York Times, Financial Times, Fast Company, Christian Science Monitor and CNN.com.  
• Renee Montagne, NPR correspondent and host. From 2004 to 2016, Montagne co-hosted NPR's "Morning Edition," the most widely heard radio news program in the United States. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Montagne has made 10 extended reporting trips to Afghanistan, where she has traveled to every major city, from Kabul to Kandahar. She has profiled Afghanistan's presidents and power brokers, while also focusing on the stories of Afghans at the heart of their complex country: schoolgirls, farmers, mullahs, poll workers, midwives and warlords.
• Gaisu Yari, a human rights defender from Afghanistan and survivor of child marriage who holds a master’s degree in human rights from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in Middle Eastern and gender studies from the University of Virginia. Yari is a writer and active speaker on women’s issues in Afghanistan and worked with the government of Afghanistan as a commissioner to the Civil Service Commission of Afghanistan, as well as with national and international organizations. The focus of her expertise is in human rights and gender justice. She has extensive knowledge and professional experience working in both the U.S. and Afghanistan.   

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