Sarah Chayes and "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban"

When Sarah Chayes entered Afghanistan, she was a National Public Radio reporter on assignment, covering the last stand of the Taliban from their home base of Kandahar. But as her understanding of the country and the U.S. occupation grew, she was drawn more deeply into the unfolding drama to rebuild a broken nation not just as a reporter, but as an aide and a witness. Chayes quickly dedicated herself to turning the country's fortunes around by accepting a job running as Field Director of Afghans for Civil Society, a non-governmental aid organization founded by Qayum Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) August 20, 2006 -- Ford Hall Forum presents Sarah Chayes and "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban"; moderated by Robin Young; presented in collaboration with the WAND Education Fund. Monday, September 11, at 6:30 pm. Presentation followed by an open discussion with the audience and book signing. Admission is free and open to all. Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street (corner of Milk St.), Boston, MA. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the State St. and Downtown Crossing stops on the MBTA. For more information call Ford Hall Forum 617-373-5800 or visit www.fordhallforum.org.

The Taliban regime has been driven from power, but Afghanistan and the international community now face new problems: a devastated economy, the return of millions of refugees, drug trafficking, and a plague of corruption and violence. In addition, the fledgling government is struggling to unify and rebuild their nation and to define its future. Drawing on unparalleled access to the president's family, tribal leaders in the former Taliban heartland, Kandahar, U.S. military and diplomatic brass, and leading figures in local government, Chayes offers a unique view of Afghanistan's modern history and the challenges ahead.

Background information:

From 1997 to 2002, Sarah Chayes served as an overseas correspondent for NPR, reporting from Paris and the Balkans, as well as covering conflicts in Algeria. When war broke out in Afghanistan in 2001, NPR sent her to report from Quetta, Pakistan, and then from inside Afghanistan, based in the southern city of Kandahar, as the Taliban fell. In 2002, she left NPR to take a position running a nongovernmental aid organization, Afghans for Civil Society, founded by Qayum Karzai. Now she has launched her own artisanal agribusiness, called Arghand, a venture that encourages local Afghan farmers to produce flowers, fruits, and herbs instead of opium poppies, by buying their products and producing soaps and other scented products from them for export. For an online gallery of Chayes' photos of Afghanistan, log onto www.theconnection.org/photogallery/chayes/default.asp?counter=2. Information on Arghand and Chayes’ current “notes from the field” can be found at www.arghand.org. Chayes’ work as a correspondent for NPR during the Kosovo crisis earned her, together with other members of the NPR team, the 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards.

Robin Young brings over 25 years of eclectic broadcast experience to her role as host of Here and Now. She is both a Peabody Award winning documentary filmmaker and the former host of a cooking game show. Young has been a correspondent for the Discovery Channel and ABC-TV, as well as a guest host on the CBS Morning and for several years a substitute host and correspondent for the Today Show on NBC. She may be best known to the Boston audience for her part in launching the popular Evening Magazine on WBZ-TV in the mid-70's, and for her television profiles on WNEV-TV in the mid-80's. For the past decade Young has been producing and directing documentaries, including the Los Altos Story, a groundbreaking look at the effect of AIDS on a Rotary Club in California, which won both the George Foster Peabody and Cable Ace awards. She has won numerous industry awards, including 5 Emmy awards for reporting, hosting, and producing.

In its 98th season, the Ford Hall Forum once again engages Greater Boston with thought-provoking discussions on the issues facing our community, nation, and world. Has the Bush Administration’s strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan failed? Do race and ethnicity play pivotal roles in defining the haves and have-nots in our society? Can we balance economic interests with human rights in our policy toward China? The Forum hands over the microphone to knowledgeable speakers who have positioned themselves on the front lines of these and other critical issues. Questions and discussion are provided equal time to prepared remarks so no speaker goes unquestioned, and no view goes unchallenged. It is the richness of these discussions that embodies the true spirit of the Forum.

Since 1908, the Ford Hall Forum has been fostering civic dialogue, enriching public education, and honoring free speech through the presentation of free public lectures and discussion. As the nation’s oldest free public lecture series, it has a storied past as a venue for some of the most intriguing figures in our nation¹s modern history: from Eleanor Roosevelt to Margaret Sanger; Robert Frost to Martin Luther King, Jr.; Clarence Darrow to Malcolm X; Ayn Rand to Norman Mailer; and Al Gore to Ralph Reed. Most recently, we have tackled such thorny issues as stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and the war on terror. Programs of the Ford Hall Forum are made possible through contributions from individual members as well as corporations and foundations, including The Barr Foundation, The Boston Foundation, The Colonnade Hotel, The Lincoln and Therese Filene Foundation, Houghton Chemical Corporation, Levine Katz Nannis + Solomon P.C., The Lowell Institute, The Millipore Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and Northeastern University. For more information log onto www.fordhallforum.org.

The Ford Hall Forum presents this program in collaboration with the Old South Meeting House, as part of their Partners in Public Dialogue Series. Old South Meeting House is a non-profit museum and historic site, located on the Freedom Trail, dedicated to sustaining the building¹s tradition as a community-gathering place for the free exchange of ideas and to provide a place where people can connect the issues of the past with the issues of today. It receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency, and other public and private sources. Visit www.oldsouthmeetinghouse.org for more information.

For almost 25 years, WAND Education Fund has worked to educate the public and opinion leaders about the need to reduce violence and militarism in society, and redirect excessive military spending to unmet human and environmental needs. WAND Education Fund is committed to bringing new and diverse voices across the country into the debate on peace and security issues. Wand Education Fund encourages women to learn the facts and helps them to use their voices and take action to promote positive change. Log onto www.wand.org/wand_edfund_home.htm for further information.

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