Afghanistan: Through Women's Eyes

Shot thirty days into the U.S. bombing campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan during the fall of 2001, this unsettling film documents the struggle for human rights among the women of Afghanistan. With bombs and international attention zeroing in on the 4.7 million refugees, and the unbridled terror of the Taliban still an immediate threat, it's no surprise we're left with more evocative images of landscape and moving music than content-heavy reports from the field. According to the film, 400,000 Afghans were on the brink of starvation at the time of its production, with another 7.5 million in urgent need of aid to survive the winter of 2002. Perhaps under these trying circumstances, it's unfair to ask for much more than a few interviews with brave members of the feminist group RAWA, the Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association, who have been working for years both within and outside Afghanistan to advance human rights and women's rights. Many of these women are interviewed in silhouette, adding yet another layer of anonymity to whatever is left of their spirit after twenty years in a world that one RAWA worker describes as a “living death.” Even in the unveiled interviews among shell-shocked women in the relative safety of RAWA camps, orphanages, and clinics in Pakistan, there's an uneasy feeling that this report is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. A moving but disconcertingly quiet film, Afghanistan: Through Women's Eyes is a timely documentary about voices compromised by fear and stories that are still waiting to be told. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantú)