Malalai Joya 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2008
Provocative Evening with the "Bravest Woman in Afghanistan"

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Proclaimed "the bravest woman in Afghanistan" by the BBC, Malalai Joya is a true international heroine. She sprang to fame in 2003 at age 25 for speaking out against the ex-Mujahideen leaders who dominated Afghanistan's historic constitutional assembly, of which she was an elected delegate. She was called a "prostitute" and an "infidel" for having the courage to speak her mind. Joya has since survived attacks, threats of rape, four assassination attempts and now travels in Afghanistan under a burqa and with armed guards.

In 2005, Joya was elected to Afghanistan's national parliament, where as the youngest person elected, and one of the most popular, she continued to press her case for democracy and women's rights. However, in May of 2007 she was suspended for challenging her fellow representatives. Her suspension, currently being appealed, triggered international protest. She has been compared to Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's democracy movement, and continues to serve as a passionate public voice for her people.

Joya explained her commitment to the BBC: "They will kill me but they will not kill my voice, because it will be the voice of all Afghan women. You can cut the flower, but you cannot stop the coming of spring."

Past Speakers

Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Described as exhibiting a combination of strength, determination, vision and care in her leadership style, Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga has demonstrated that women can be both "tough" and "compassionate." As President of the Republic of Latvia from 1999 to 2007, she worked to reduce corruption in Latvia, helped grow its market economy, secured Latvia's membership in NATO and the European Union, improved relations amongst minority groups and increased Latvia's standing as a dedicated democracy in the world.

Named Special Envoy on the Reform of the United Nations in 2005, Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga was an official candidate of the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania) for the position of Secretary-General in 2006. She has received many medals and awards, including the 2005 Hannah Arendt Prize for political thought, as well as 27 Orders of Merit and ten honorary doctorates.

Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga appeared in conversation with CBS 5 anchor Sydnie Kohara on "Women, Power and Politics" on May 14, 2008.

Alice Walker

Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize, the first for an African-American woman, for her novel The Color Purple, which was made into an internationally popular film and is now a Broadway musical co-produced by Oprah Winfrey. Her other best-selling novels, which have been translated into more than two dozen languages, include By the Light of My Father's Smile, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and The Temple of My Familiar. Her most recent fiction work, Now is the Time to Open Your Heart, was published in 2004.

An activist and social visionary, Ms. Walker has been a participant in many of the major movements of planetary changes in the last half-century, among them, the Civil Rights Movement in the South and the Women's Movement. Her advocacy on behalf of the dispossessed has, in the words of her biographer, Evelyn C. White, "spanned the globe."

Alice Walker appeared in conversation with author an activist Jewelle Gomez on "Alice Walker: An American Life" on November 14, 2007.

Dr. Riane Eisler

Dr. Riane Eisler, International Museum of Women Global Council member, is a dynamic speaker, social visionary, attorney, and social activist, and author of the international bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future.

Dr. Eisler was born in Vienna, fled from the Nazis with her parents to Cuba, and later emigrated to the United States. She obtained degrees in sociology and law from the University of California and taught pioneering classes on women and the law at UCLA. She is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and other spiritual leaders. Dr. Eisler is also co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV) and is president of the Center for Partnership Studies.

Dr. Riane Eisler appeared in conversation with award-winning broadcast journalist Jan Yanehiro on "What's a Woman's Worth? Changing the Rules of the Game" on August 5, 2007.

Ric Esther Bienstock

With an unparalleled career exploring controversial issues, producer/writer/director Ric Esther Bienstock is one of Canada’s finest documentary filmmakers. Ric has been involved in making over a dozen documentaries and has garnered numerous awards since beginning her career in 1986. Ric’s most recent documentary, Sex Slaves (also released as The Real Sex Traffic) investigates the trafficking of women from the former Soviet bloc into the global sex slave trade. Written, directed, and produced by Ric, this is the first film to take viewers inside the world of trafficking to meet victims, their families and traffickers, who talk candidly about their experiences of how the sex slave trade operates. The film aired on PBS to record ratings and screened at the U.N. Documentary Film Festival where it won Best of the Festival.

Ric’s films explore the human spirit through first-hand accounts. An uncompromising dedication to showing the true face of human drama will continue to take her around the world and into the inner heart of the human condition. Her other films have earned her many awards including: two Gemini Awards; a Genie; a Dupont-Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism; a Cable Ace Award; two Gold Hugos from the Chicago Film Festival; a Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award from the IDA in Los Angeles; two HOT DOCS Awards; the Grand Prix at the Nyon International Film Festival in Switzerland; the Carl Spielvogel Award for Best International Reporting in the broadcast media; the Overseas Press Club of America, and a Broadcast Award for Best Documentary Programme in the U.K..

Rick Esther Bienstock appeared in conversation with Professor Karn Musalo on "Sex Slaves: Inside the World of Human Trafficking" on January 25, 2007.

Dr. Sima Samar

Dr. Samar is a leading authority on women and girl’s basic rights to education, employment, mobility, and medical care and a strong advocate for the involvement of Afghan women in government and the reconstruction of civil society in Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2002, Dr. Samar served as the deputy prime minister and minister of women’s affairs for the interim administration of Afghanistan. She assumed this post after 17 years of exile in Pakistan, where in 1989, she established the Shuhada Organization, a non-profit, nonpolitical, NGO committed to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan with special emphasis on the empowerment of women and children.

Dr. Samar and her medical staff now run four hospitals and ten clinics in Afghanistan and another hospital in Quetta that provide much needed medical assistance and education for Afghan women and children. She runs schools in rural Afghanistan for more than 20,000 students as well as a school for refugee girls in Quetta attended by over 1,000 girls. Dr. Samar is part of the international network Women Living Under Muslim Laws, which has links in 40 countries and a powerful voice at the United Nations. She has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards and is an international symbol for health and human rights.