Newsroom

CORVALLIS - Oregon State University will host a lecture on Sunday, April 21, that will look at U.S. policy in the Middle East and women in Afghanistan. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. in the Milam Auditorium.

The 90-minute talk, "U.S. Policy in the Middle East and the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan: Stories and Images You Won't Get on the 6 O'Clock News," is free and open to the public.

Neesha Mirchandani, James Ingalls and Larry Everest will lead the discussion. Mirchandani and Ingalls are on the board of directors of the Afghan Women's Mission, an organization that supports the Revoluntionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan's work. Everest is a journalist who has covered the Middle East and Central Asia for more than 20 years.

Everest will focus on the U.S. war on terror and the effect it has had on the people of Iraq, Iran, and other countries in the Middle East.

Mirchandani and Ingalls will provide an in-depth view of the refugee camps, and will tell stories of Afghans who have lived through 23 years of war. The Revolutionary Association of Women of the Women of Afghanistan works to document human rights abuses - sometimes using tiny video cameras hidden under burquas. The group has led demonstrations to demand democracy and human rights. Established in 1977, the group is the oldest political and humanitarian feminist organization in Afghanistan, said Beth Rietveld, assistant director of Student Involvement at OSU.

The talk is sponsored by: the OSU Women's Center, the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Anthropology, the Corvallis Chapter of UNIFEM, and the Community Alliance for Diversity.