Afghanistan: What’s Next for Women and Girls, with Northwestern Buffet Institute for Global Affairs

In 2023, nearly two years after the Taliban’s unexpected return to power in Afghanistan, the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Central Asia Institute, and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center for International Human Rights hosted a panel discussion examining the country’s evolving situation.

The conversation focused on the mounting challenges faced by Afghan women and girls as the Taliban imposes increasingly harsh restrictions and rolls back human rights protections.

The event featured Najia Mahmodi, former Chief Prosecutor for the Elimination of Violence Against Women before the Supreme Court at the Attorney General’s Office of Afghanistan and Research Associate at Northwestern Buffett; Martin Smith, producer, writer, narrator, and foreign correspondent, who screened excerpts from his PBS FRONTLINE docuseries America and the Taliban; and Alice Thomas, Executive Director of the Central Asia Institute. Juliet Sorensen, Clinical Professor of Law with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center for International Human Rights, moderated the discussion.