The annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium will take place on Friday and Saturday 30 and 31 March 2007, and will be on the theme of “The Seven Deadly Sins in the Middle Ages.” All faculty and students are welcome to attend. For program details, please see the Colloquium web-page: http://www.sewanee.edu/Medieval/main.html.
Annual Anita S. Goodstein Lecture in Women's History
A Touching, Personal Account of an Afghan Woman
Farooka Gauhari
Monday, March 5, 2007
Convocation Hall
7:30 p.m.
In 1997 Farooka Gauhari published her memoirs, Searching for Saleem: An Afghan Woman's Odyssey. At the time no Afghan woman had published an English memoir in book form. Her personal account covers everything from the search for her missing husband, of watching her home country topple, the Afghan woman's presence in politics shrink, witnessing the government institutionalize repression, to her gradual decision to take her family and leave a country where she had once been flagged as an American agent, to create a new life in a country where she now fears retaliation because of her Afghan and Muslim ties.
Farooka Gauhari's story reflects the harrowing encounters of countless Afghan families: their sufferings and their struggles to maintain their identities under totalitarian rule. Her experience is a particularly touching and powerful memoir of the Afghan peoples. It typifies the kinds of human rights violations practiced against scores of Afghans.
Her insight into topics related to ethnic groups in Afghanistan, the problems faced as a woman living in an Islamic society, the new government of Afghanistan and the women's role in rebuilding the country after Taliban occupation, make the violent collapse of her country and her experiences a memorable lesson in courage and perseverance.
