Afghanistan: Report Back from Women’s Peace Delegation

We are excited to present to you a report back from members of the first civil society women’s delegation to Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul on August 15th.

What did they learn and what do they want to see happen?

In other words, our special guests discuss the current situation on the ground & what we can do to help the Afghan people, including women and girls.

We will hear us talk about — and take action — to unfreeze the $7 billion of Afghan money in U.S. banks and increase U.S. humanitarian aid.

Our guests:

Kelly Campbell is a co-founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and traveled to Afghanistan in January, 2002 with other 9/11 family members to call attention to Afghan civilian casualties. She is co-chair of the group’s Afghanistan committee which is currently focused on ensuring that all the Afghan Central Bank funds are returned to the Afghan people where they belong and not held for the purpose of settling lawsuits by 9/11 family members.

Sunita Viswanath is a cofounder and former board member of the 21 year old women’s organization Women for Afghan Women. She is a progressive Hindu faith leader. She is an advisory member of the advocacy organization Unfreeze Afghanistan.

Ruth Messinger is the former President and inaugural Global Ambassador of American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Ruth was formerly part of the State Department’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group and is currently a member of the World Bank’s Moral Imperative Working Group on Extreme Poverty. Ruth is also currently doing international human rights work for AIDS Free World and serving as the inaugural Social Justice Fellow at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Additionally, she is the Social Justice Activist-in-Residence at the JCC of Manhattan. Ruth is also an icon in New York politics: she served as a NY City Council member and then as Manhattan Borough President.

Daisy Khan is a Muslim campaigner, reformer, and executive director of the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, a women-led organization committed to peacebuilding, equality, and justice for Muslims around the world.

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of the foreign policy advocacy group Global Exchange and the women-led peace group CODEPINK. She is a cofounder of the advocacy organization Unfreeze Afghanistan. She has been active around Afghanistan for 20 years, including seeking compensation for Afghan war victims, raising funds for girls schools and advocating for an end to the U.S. military intervention.