Join us for a film screening and conversation with Dr. Sahraa Karimi, director of "Afghan Women behind the Wheel", and Dr. Naima Mohammadi, Visiting Teaching Assistant Professor in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Department at the University of Pittsburgh.
About the film: The desire for freedom is basic to human nature all over the world. Obtaining a driving license is becoming a key factor in personal freedom for Afghan women. However, is Afghan society prepared for women behind the wheel? Director Sahraa Karimi asks this and many other questions in her 2009 documentary "Afghan Women behind the Wheel".
Born and raised in Kabul, Karimi follows several Afghan women trying to get a driving license. In her interviews, she discovers the motivations and desires of these women, often determined by their age, social status and family backgrounds. She taps into their lives and dreams, discusses religion and family traditions, and builds an intimate understanding of their journey toward personal freedom.
The film is a fascinating portrait of a society in which dreams live in stark contrast to the reality on the streets of Kabul, where the present time meets the culture of 4000 years ago.Â
Slovakia, 2009
Directed by Sahraa Karimi
Approx. 56 min.
Reception to follow.
Presented by the New University in Exile Consortium at The New School for Social Research. Co-sponsored by The School of Media Studies at The New School.
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The New University in Exile Consortium is an expanding group of 66 universities and colleges publicly committed to the belief that the academic community has both the responsibility and capacity to assist persecuted and endangered scholars everywhere and to protect the intellectual capital that is jeopardized when universities and scholars are under assault. The primary mission of the Consortium is to nurture academics who have been persecuted and uprooted by creating a supportive, intellectual community among exiled scholars, as well as to publicly defend academic freedom, the core value of all our member institutions.
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Sahraa Karimi is a film director, scriptwriter and university lecturer from Afghanistan. In 2016, Karimi became the first women to serve as director general of the Afghan Film Association. She is the director of over 30 short films, three documentaries, and one feature film. Her current project, "Flight From Kabul", was recently awarded the Works in Development Award from the 2023 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Dr. Naima Mohammadi is a visiting teaching assistant professor at the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. her research focuses on the experiences of Muslim women issues in non-Muslim majority contexts. She previously served as a visiting scholar at the Global Studies Center (GSC) at the University of Pittsburgh (2022) and the Department of Political Science, Law, and International Studies at the University of Padova, Italy (2020-2021)
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