Afghanistan: A Delicate Balance
Human Rights, Democracy and Nation Building

Documentary

A special clip of the documentary

The Woman in Exile Returns: The Sima Wali Story
By Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald

The documentary, The Woman in Exile Returns: The Sima Wali Story, was co-produced by Gould & Fitzgerald and RefWID, Inc. Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, a husband and wife team, began their experience when they were the first American journalists to acquire permission to enter Afghanistan behind Soviet lines in 1981. The covered that story first for CBS News and produced a one-hour documentary, Afghanistan Behind Three Worlds, for PBS. Paul Fitzgerald subsequently led a Circle discussion about Afghanistan. In 1983, Liz and Paul returned to Kabul with Harvard Negotiation project leader Roger Fischer for ABC Nightline and contributed to the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.

Discussion Leader

Sima Wali, President, Refugee Women in Development

Sima Wali, president of Refugee Women in Development (RefWID), Inc., is an Afghan activist living in exile in the United States, and has worked for over 20 years to empower uprooted women to assert their huan rights and to participate in economic and social development. She is a pioneer in providing culturally specific institutional development programs and domestic violence prevention and intervention mechanisms for women around the world.

After 24 years in exile, Sima Wali returned to the Afghan capital of Kabul in October of 2002 to help rebuild her shattered nation. As president of Refugee Women in Development, she transformed herself from victim to advocate as she worked for decades to empower uprooted women to participate in their own economic and social development. So keen is her understanding that she attended the UN Peace Talks on Afghanistan in Bonn representing the former king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah.

Sima Wali is the recipient of numerous awards for her work in developing program models aimed at the empowerment of women caught in conflcit, democratic civil society, rebuilding of war-torn societies, gender, forced migration, and human rights.

We are privileged to have Sima Wali with us this morning as we examine how we can help in fulfilling our promise to the Afghan people.

Moderator

Liz Walker, Anchor, Eyewitness News WBZ-4 TV Boston

Award winning journalist Liz Walker is a weekday news anchor for WBZ-TV 4 Boston. She joined the station in April 1980 and went on to anchor the evening newscasts for almost 20 years before moving to the dayshift in 2000 to spend more quality time with her family.

In the summer of 2001, Liz Walker traveled to war-torn Sudan with a group of local ministers on a fact-finding mission on the controversial slave trade in southern Sudan. Ms. Walker, who now attends Harvard's Divinity School, shot her own footage during the journey which was featured in a WBZ-TV 4 news special and will be included in an independent one-hour documentary entitled In the Lion's Mouth, to be broadcast later in the year.

Recognized often for her exemplary work on the air and in her community, Liz Walker is the recipient of several awards, has served on several committees and boards, and co-chairs the Jane Doe Safety Fund which supports domestic abuse shelters and safe houses around Massachusetts. She was at the forefront of the station's long-running Stop the Violence campaign, an initiative that took the message to young people around the region stressing the importance of education and setting goals to break the cycle of violence. She spends much of her personal time helping to raise money and awareness for a variety of causes including AIDS, breast cancer prevention and homelessness.

Liz Walker brings her professional skill and personal involvement to critical issues in her community and around the world. A longtime participant of Global Citizens Circle, Liz Walker previously moderated Circle discussions 1986 and 1995. We are grateful to her her with us once again as moderator.

Refugee Women in Development (RefWID), Inc.

Refugee Women in Development (RefWID), Inc. founded in 1981, is a leading international women in development institution focusing on refugee, displaced and returnee women in the United States and overseas. It works to heighten awareness of human rights abuses against uprooted women, and seek to support the civil and democractic institutional capacities of women who have experienced mass human rights abuses, domestic violence, rape, trauma, war, and civil strife. RefWID provides training for empowerment, leadership development, capacity building, advocacy, and individual skill building to women and community based grass roots agencies that are experiencing major socio-political transformations or emerging out of crisis.