What is the revised strategy in place to end the conflict? With the Taliban active in 70% of the country, has the West lost the battle for hearts and minds? What are the intentions of America and the UK in pushing a liberal agenda in the country and who is paying the price for this conflict? Our panel will discuss.

Chair

Jonathan Beale is the BBC Defence correspondent. Before joining the BBC in 1999 Beale had been an assistant to a Member of Parliament. Beale also spent two years in Brussels as the BBC’s regional Europe correspondent and Europe political correspondent, before returning to London to become one of the BBC’s political correspondents at Millbank. He’s also presented political programmes, such as The Westminster Hour on BBC Radio 4. He served in Washington DC covering the 2006 midterm elections. In 2009 he covered the Guantanamo military commissions.

Speakers

Christina Lamb is chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times and been reporting on Afghanistan for 30 years since the Soviet Occupation, with unparalleled access to all key decision makers. She has developed an extensive understanding of the country, its people and the ongoing conflict. Christina has been a foreign correspondent for more than twenty five years, living in Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa first for the Financial Times then The Sunday Times. She is the author of The Africa House, House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided in War-torn Zimbabwe, Waiting For Allah: Pakistan’s Struggle for Democracy, The Sewing Circles of Herat, My Afghan Years. Farewell Kabul and co-author of I Am Malala.

Sahr Muhammedally is a Director for MENA and South Asia at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC). She manages research, advocacy, and trainings on civilian protection and harm mitigation and advises governments and armed actors on civilian protection during all phases of operations. Sahr has worked for over 15 years in the fields of armed conflict, human rights, and counterterrorism and undertaken field work in Afghanistan, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen. Prior to joining CIVIC, Sahr worked at Human Rights Watch covering armed conflict and counterterrorism policies and practices in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan, and at Human Rights First on US detention practices in Bagram, Guantanamo, and targeted killings. Sahr was a consultant with Human Rights in China examining the right to fair trial under Chinese laws and authored the American Civil Liberties shadow report to the UN Committee on the Convention against Torture on the United States’ second periodic review to the committee.

Kawoon Khamoosh works for the BBC World Service as a TV Journalist. He has been covering Afghanistan since 2008, including six years as a BBC Persian correspondent for Afghanistan based in Kabul.
Targeting mainly Afghan and Persian speaking audience, Kawoon has been telling stories not only about politics and conflicts but also life beyond war and battlefields. Kawoon was inspired to start work as a journalist when he finished high school, telling everyday life stories of the people suffering from suicide attacks and bombings, for a small radio station in 2008, where he found his way to work as an investigative journalist for Afghanistan’s 1tv media and some other local newspapers and TVs before joining BBC. He is currently based in London and work as a journalist for the BBC World Service.

Nick McDonnell is a novelist, journalist, and political theorist. Born in New York City in 1984, he studied at Harvard and St. Antony’s College, Oxford. His work has been published in twenty three countries and appeared on bestseller lists around the world. His new book, The Bodies In Person: An Account of Civilian Casualties in American Wars, will be published in the U.S. on September 18, 2018.

On Friday 20 May, the Frontline Club hosted a screening of ‘He Named Me Malala’, an insightful and emotional portrait of Malala Yousafzai, that usher us into Malala’s life; both now and before she was shot by the Taliban while campaigning for Pakistani girls’ right to education. The screening was followed by a panel discussion moderated by BBC journalist Sima Kotecha, with Gulwali Passarlay, an author and Afghan political refugee, Philippa Lei, Director or Policy and Advocacy at Malala Fund, and Elin Martinez, researcher in the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. The panel discussed the right to education for refugees, all contributing their individual expertise.

A constant theme throughout the evening was lack of access to education for refugees around the world, whether in refugee camps in Jordan, or in foster care in the UK, and what barriers need to be overcome for this to change. Passarlay arrived in the UK when he was 13 years old, after travelling for one year, through ten countries. He initially found it very difficult to access education, and describing it as “the key to freedom”. All panel members agreed that education was vital for all refugee children, with Lei commenting that many governments do not spend enough money on an infrastructure to facilitate providing education to all refugees, and that rich countries should be providing more resources to those countries that are hosting the majority of the world’s refugees, stating that: “…governments have a financial responsibility to provide an education for every child”.

The panel all dismissed the financial argument that educating and housing refugees will use up their resources, with Martinez observing that “resources can be found when they want to be”. Passarlay stated that these arguments, which create an “us and them” are unfair, asking

“Why are we blaming refugees [for austerity]? We should see refugees not as a burden, but as an investment”

And stating that, as Malala has said before, “we have a voice in the West but we take it or granted”. In agreement, Lei observed that “Malala is using her voice to bring some of that moral conscience back”, when she is not scared to ask difficult questions and talk about the issues that matter to her.

In answer to an audience member asking what do refugee children need the most, Passarlay, with agreement from the other panel members, told her that “What is in short supply is dignity, human value…understanding and compassion. Education is important, but, they are traumatised, before that they need love”.

For more information about any future screenings of ‘He named me Malala’ and the work of the Malala Fund, visit https://www.withmalala.org/

He Named Me Malala is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. She miraculously survived and is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education globally as co-founder of the Malala Fund.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman) shows us how Malala, her father Zia and her family are committed to fighting for education for all girls worldwide. The film gives us an inside glimpse into this extraordinary young girl’s life – from her close relationship with her father who inspired her love for education, to her impassioned speeches at the UN, to her everyday life with her parents and brothers.

The release of He Named Me Malala coincided with a 12-month social action and advocacy campaign – #withMalala. Through audience engagement with global and in-country calls to action, the campaign aims to raise mass awareness, funding, and policy change by activating millions of people worldwide as newfound champions for girls’ education globally.

Sima Kotecha (moderator) is a British television and radio journalist working for the BBC. She currently is a multimedia reporter for BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme and makes regular appearances on the main BBC News TV bulletins as a reporter. She also presents the BBC1 TV news bulletin at 8pm and has presented Radio 5Live’s Up All Night and Newsday on the BBC World Service.

Gulwali Passarlay is an Afghan political refugee currently reading politics and international relations at the University of Manchester. He has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 News and TEDx.

Philippa Lei is Director of Policy and Advocacy at Malala Fund. Philippa studied NGOs and International Development at LSE after spending 3 years in Romania working with children orphaned by AIDS. She held senior positions at World Vision and Save the Children before joining Malala Fund and has published papers and worked extensively on child rights policy, lobbying and programming related to international development.

Elin Martinez joined Human Rights Watch in July 2014, as a Researcher in the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, focused on the right to secondary education. She previously worked for the Global Partnership for Education’s Secretariat in Washington, as well as Save the Children UK, where she led the organization’s global advocacy efforts on the right to education in humanitarian emergencies and armed conflict.
Prior to focusing on global education advocacy, she worked at Franciscans International, a faith-based international NGO. Focused on human rights issues in the Asia Pacific, she worked with grassroots human rights defenders and advocacy organizations to develop national human rights advocacy strategies and to increase accountability for human rights violations through UN human rights bodies. You can follow her work on twitter via @Martinez_Elin or by visiting: https://goo.gl/V9m0jW

https://www.withmalala.org/
Directed by: Davis Guggenheim
Country: UK
Year: 2015
Runtime: 88′

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with reporter Abi Austen, director Will West and producer Shoaib Sharifi.

Reporter Abigail Austen is a former Parachute Regiment officer, the first British army officer to change her gender. Together with director Will West, she returns to the battlefield at the invitation of her former Afghan colleagues. Austen served four years alongside the US Army in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Austen has secured unique and extraordinary access to a turning point in the battle against ISIS and the Taliban across Helmand and Kandahar provinces, and are the first television crew to re-visit Camp Bastion since the British army withdrew. Now the battle’s at a pivotal stage.

Following the end of Coalition combat operations at the close of 2014, Afghans have been leading the fight against ISIS and a resurgent Taliban. In 2015, just one year, the Afghan army has lost ten times more soldiers than the British lost in fifteen years. The Taliban now control over half the country.

Austen and West fly with the helicopters of the Afghan Air Force, crucial to bringing in reinforcements and carrying out the wounded and dead. The bases they fly to are completely surrounded by the Taliban and helicopters are the only way in or out.

Back in Kandahar, Austen visits wounded troops in the military hospital where no western television journalists have ever been allowed access. She finds wards full of severely injured men. In Afghanistan, there’s no pension or Help for Heroes. Many of the wounded are the sole breadwinners for their families.

Austen meets the Head of the Air Wing, General Sherzai, who admits that the military situation is critical. The Unreported World team flies with him to Helmand and visits the site of the former Camp Bastion, now empty and no use to the Afghans despite intense ongoing fighting. On her return to Kandahar, Austen is given bad news. Other towns including Musa Qala have fallen to the Taliban. The news means everything the British fought for in Northern Helmand is now in Taliban hands.

Austen and West join another helicopter mission to Khas Uruzgan, one of the last bases left. It’s completely surrounded by the Taliban, and the fighting is hand-to-hand. As the helicopter lands, the pilot Salim spots a Taliban position above. A battle rages overhead as a few desperate souls try to get on board and take the only way out.

An Afghan army that the West spent billions to create is beginning to fall apart. Kandahar City, the Taliban’s birthplace, is now within their sights. If the Taliban is successful, the Afghan Government is unlikely to survive.

Channel 4, 7.30pm, Friday 9th April
For more information visit: www.channel4.com/unreportedworld http://www.facebook.com/unreportedworld #UnreportedWorld

Directed by: Will West
Reporter: Abi Austen
Producer: Shoaib Sharifi
Runtime: 24′
Country: United Kingdom

On Tuesday 20 November 2015, the Frontline Club hosted a packed screening of the documentary Frame by Frame, followed by a discussion with filmmakers Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli. The film follows four Afghan photojournalists who have the challenging task of helping to establish a free and diverse media landscape after years of repressive Taliban rule in Afghanistan, during which photography – and a free press – was prohibited.

On the origins of the project, Bombach said: “9/11 happened when I was 16. I didn’t really think about Afghanistan too much.”

But while shooting a different short film, Bombach and Scarpelli became increasingly curious to hear from Afghan journalists and Afghan storytellers. Bombach said, “In 2012, I emptied my bank account and sold my car for Mo and I to go there.” After which they started actively engaging with and following local journalists.

Regarding the choice to focus on the four main characters, Scarpelli said: “We didn’t have a lot of time with them the first time we met them… We got to know them over the course of these interviews.”

Access was not a significant issue as the protagonists were journalists themselves: “They understood what we were trying to do. We wanted to do not just a story about them shooting or a profile piece. We wanted to tell a story about human beings.”

Bombach commented on one of the photojournalists featured: “[Najibullah] is such a force and so well respected. He naturally became this form in the film that guides us through.”

The directors are still discussing the way in which they will bring the film to Afghan audiences. “The security of the subjects is really the most important thing,” Scarpelli said. “Of course, if we had it our way, all Afghans would see this film.”

Tonight saw wonderful @FrameByFrameDoc, on #Afghan photojournalists, at @frontlineclub; moving, revealing work by @moscarpelli @RedReelVideo

— Antony Loewenstein (@antloewenstein) October 20, 2015

Regarding the presence of American armed forces while shooting the film, Bombach said: “You can obviously feel the presence,” although they weren’t always visible.

Scarpelli added: “I was surprised that [the photojournalists’] lives weren’t affected on a day to day basis by the US forces.”

In response to an audience question on the technicalities of shooting, Scarpelli said: “Alexandria and I were the only ones shooting the entire film.” The filmmakers agreed with an audience member’s suggestion that they “filmed endlessly and cut out the golden bits.”

In the end, the directors had more than 300 hours of footage. “It took a year and a half to edit,” said Scarpelli.

Language was an important part of the editing process, especially because some of the characters in the film spoke in English and others in Farsi. “We do feel that you can describe so much better what happens when you are speaking your own language,” said Bombach. “We put a lot of time and effort into translations (…) to make sure that the nuances of the language were represented as much as possible.”

Access to the Afghan women featured in the film was largely provided by the photojournalist Farzana Wahidy, who had developed a wide and trusting network of female contacts. Bombach commented: “As foreign women you are allowed into the room with the men because you are not held to the same standards as Afghan women… You are also allowed into the room with women – so for us it was a great scenario.

She added: “People are so historically hospitable. They are curious about what you are doing.”

Bombach and Scarpelli then discussed AINA, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to educating Afghan journalists.

Bombach said: “Farzana wanted to be a journalist but she didn’t know anything about photography.” She was educated by AINA and now teaches young Afghan journalists both in Kabul and in rural areas across Afghanistan.

“Farzana focuses on teaching the business side of being a photographer,” added Scarpelli. “There is a gap between the basics you know and how you actually become a professional.”

Worryingly, Scarpelli commented, “the situation in Afghanistan security wise is deteriorating,” highlighted by the Taliban’s recent capture of Kunduz. The four photojournalists featured in Frame by Frame, however, continue to work on their projects despite the increasingly difficult conditions.

Visit the Frame by Frame website for further details on the film and upcoming screenings.

Gulwali Passarlay was only 12 years old when he left his home and family in Afghanistan. He would be shot at, imprisoned and almost drown before he reached his new home in Britain.

Fleeing the violence and reprisals of the Afghan war, Passarlay was smuggled into Iran, separated from his brother in Pakistan, and forced to spend 50 hours on a dangerously overcrowded boat on the Mediterranean. Braving oppressive heat and the freezing cold, his 12 month odyssey took him across an entire continent.

We welcome Gulwali Passarlay to the Frontline Club in conversation with journalist and former Afghanistan correspondent for the BBC, David Loyn, to share his story as documented in his memoir The Lightless Sky, and to offer his personal insight into the current refugee crisis. As an accomplished ambassador and advisor, Passerlay holds the unique position of both witness to and spokesperson for the plight of refugees in Britain.

Gulwali Passarlay is an Afghan political refugee currently reading politics and international relations at the University of Manchester. He has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 News and TEDx.

He will be joined by co-author of The Lightless Sky and journalist, Nadene Ghouri.

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL BE FILMED AND STREAMED LIVE ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

After decades of war and an oppressive Taliban regime, four Afghan photojournalists face the realities of building a free press in a country left to stand on its own – reframing Afghanistan for the world and for themselves.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, taking a photo was a crime. After the regime fell from power in 2001, a fledgling free press emerged and a photography revolution was born. Now, as foreign troops and media withdraw, Afghanistan and its journalists have been left to stand on their own.

Set in a modern Afghanistan bursting with colour and character, Frame by Frame follows four Afghan photojournalists as they navigate an emerging and dangerous media landscape. Through cinema vérité, intimate interviews, powerful photojournalism, and never-before-seen archival footage shot in secret during the Taliban regime, the film connects audiences with four photographers in the pursuit of the truth.

Directed by: Mo Scarpelli and Alexandria Bombach
Year: 2015
Country: USA
Running time: 85′

When NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan the Afghan National Army (ANA) took control of Helmand Province, an extremely dangerous region where attacks by Taliban fighters are the order of the day.

The directors of Tell Spring Not to Come This Year accompanied an ANA company during a year of frontline duty in Helmand. The soldiers are paid irregularly, there are not enough supplies and their equipment is substandard. Saeed Taji Farouky’s cinemascope images lend an epic dimension to the soldiers’ daily lives. The private moments and bloody battles feel like a metaphor for the fate of this war-torn country.

In off-screen interviews, the protagonists talk about their doubts, their hopes and their dreams. At the same time the film shows the absurdity of the conflict from the point of view of these Afghan soldiers, in a country whose government is fighting an enemy that even NATO troops did not succeed in defeating in almost thirteen years.

Tell Spring Not to Come This Year received its world premiere at the Berlinale in February 2015 and was awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights award and the Audience Award for best documentary.

Directed by Michael McEvoy and Saeed Taji Farouky
Duration: 87′
Year: 2015

For eight years Camp Bastion was the power-house of the British Army’s military operations in Afghanistan. Britain’s biggest overseas base since World War Two has now closed down for good. Channel 4 was given exclusive access to the men and women whose job it was to pack up this giant jigsaw puzzle.

A town the size of Reading with a massive infrastructure – airport, hospital, fast food restaurants – is dismantled bolt by bolt and sent back to the UK. What is left is handed over to the Afghans. But with defences and manpower depleting daily, in the face of a constant threat from the Taliban, it is a dangerous race against time to close this city in the sand.

Directed by Richard Parry produced by Leslie Knott
Duration: 47′
Year: 2014

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/in-the-picture-journey-to-the

In late winter 2012, following in the footsteps of Eric Newby, French photographer Frédéric Lagrange journeyed to the foothills of the Hindu Kush, on assignment for Port Magazine. With minimal camera equipment, he made his way to the Wakhan Corridor – in the north-eastern Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan – a thin finger of land reaching eastwards to China, and dividing Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south.

In this isolated and somewhat independent region – known by those who live there as the roof of the world – Lagrange spent a month living with and photographing the Wakhi people, whose lifestyle has changed little in hundreds of years.

Due to their remoteness they avoided much of the terror exercised upon the people of Afghanistan by the Taliban, but now there is a growing anxiety as to what the coming years may hold.  With the Nato withdrawal fast approaching, they are recalling the violence that took sway 25 years ago during the two-year Mujahideen presence following the Soviet retreat.

Lagrange will be joining us in a discussion chaired by the The Independent’s defence correspondent, Kim Sengupta and featuring Rory Stewart MP, whose 32-day solo walk across Afghanistan in early 2002 was the basis for his first book, The Places in Between. Lagrange will present his work and they will discuss the fears and concerns he heard from the Wakhi people about the upcoming Nato withdrawal and an uncertain future.