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Advocate of Afghan women's rights, Sima Samar, to speak Feb. 27 at UNC

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Sima Samar, founding director of an organization that provides health care and education for women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will discuss the plight of women there in a lecture Feb. 27 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The former deputy prime minister and minister for women's affairs in the post-Taliban Afghan government, Samar was forced from those positions last June by a threat campaign by Muslim fundamentalists. They targeted her as the "Salman Rushdie of Afghanistan" for her views on women’s rights.

The University Center for International Studies organized the lecture, "We Had to Make a Space for Ourselves: The Women of Afghanistan," as part of its Distinguished Speakers Series. The free public talk will be at 4 p.m. in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on Stadium Drive.

"Through the series, the center is able to bring renowned international commentators and leaders to UNC," said Dr. James L. Peacock, center director. "Dr. Sima Samar is one of those great leaders, and we are thrilled that she has accepted our invitation to come to Chapel Hill."

Paid parking will be available in the Dogwood Deck on Manning Drive. A complimentary shuttle will run between the deck and the alumni center beginning at 3:30 p.m.

Samar chairs the Independent Afghanistan Human Rights Commission, the first organization of its kind in the country. A pioneer in the cause for women’s rights in war-stricken Afghanistan for almost 20 years, she founded the Shuhada Organization in 1989. Shuhada operates 12 clinics and four hospitals in Afghanistan and Pakistan, all dedicated to the provision of health care to Afghan women and girls.

Shuhada also operates 55 schools for girls and boys in Afghanistan and three schools for Afghan refugees in Quetta, Pakistan. During the Taliban regime, Shuhada schools in central Afghanistan were the only high schools that girls were able to attend in the country.

Samar graduated from Kabul University Medical College in 1982. After 17 years in exile in Pakistan, she returned to Afghanistan in 2001 and accepted the appointments in the interim administration of President Hamid Karzai.

" Sima Samar has been a courageous advocate and an untiring worker in support of the human rights, health, and education of Afghan women," said Dr. Carl Ernst, a UNC professor of religious studies. "She is an inspiring example of how to serve others."

Award-winning Canadian journalist and special UNICEF representative to Afghanistan Sally Armstrong will introduce Samar. Armstrong wrote "Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan"; her documentary film, "The Daughters of Afghanistan," will debut at 7 p.m. March 1 at the Duke (University) Center for Documentary Studies.

Carolina's University Center for International Studies' Distinguished Speakers Series, established in 2001, brings renowned individuals from around the world to discuss important and timely issues of international significance with the university community. Previous series speakers have included Sandy Berger, former national security adviser to President Clinton, and Robert Fisk, Britain’s most decorated foreign correspondent, who has reported from the Middle East for more than 25 years.

The series is funded by a generous gift from Alston Gardner, a 1977 alumnus from Atlanta, to the Carolina First Campaign.

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Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/samar_sima021303.jpg

Note: Samar is expected to have time after the lecture to talk to interested media representatives.

Contact: Cindy DiCello, (919) 843-5287, cindy_dicello@unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, print, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu; Karen Moon, broadcast, (919) 962-8595, karen_moon@unc.edu