Women in Afghanistan - with guest Dr. Bahar Jalali

Amy is joined by Dr. Bahar Jalali to discuss the history of Afghanistan and how the country's past, as well as global politics, shape the lives of Afghan women today.

Dr. Bahar Jalali teaches the history of the Modern Middle East. Her area of expertise is Afghanistan. She focuses on modernization and women’s rights in the twentieth century under the Old Regime. She is currently finishing a manuscript on the Decade of Democracy from 1963-1973 in Afghanistan when an urban educated intelligentsia spearheaded democratic reforms and a liberal Constitution. Born in Afghanistan, she fled the country as a child after the Soviet invasion.

In 2009, she returned to Afghanistan to work at the newly opened American University in Kabul where she taught History of Afghanistan and founded the first Gender Studies program in the history of the country. She recently started an online protest campaign calling for protection of women’s rights and preservation of cultural heritage in Afghanistan. This campaign has received extensive coverage in the international press. It has also triggered wide- ranging discussions on protection of human rights and cultural heritage in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.