Sponsored by IRIS NRC, Cosponsored by the Middle East Studies Program
Join investigative reporter and Pulitzer Center grantee May Jeong for a discussion of her experiences reporting from Afghanistan.
In preparation for this talk, attendees are encouraged to watch Afghan Dreamers, a documentary about an all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan and their fate as the Taliban came to power. The film is teen friendly and can be used in the classroom. You can view the trailer here. The film is currently streaming on Paramount+.
About the Film
When the five members of the Afghan Girls’ Robotics Team were born, education was still forbidden for women under then-Taliban rule. Fast forward to 2017 when the unlikely all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan was formed and quickly gained fame at international competitions. Their success began shifting perceptions back home, where long-held views disapproved of females pursuing STEAM programs. Instead, now they were embraced by hundreds of young girls inspired to emulate their pioneering role models. AFGHAN DREAMERS follows the team around the globe as they proudly represent the version of their nation they want the world to know. But Taliban forces and ongoing violence pose threats to their promising futures. Determined to build a better tomorrow for their country, the women must find a way to pursue their dreams in the face of tumultuous civil unrest.
About May Jeong
May Jeong spent the past five years reporting on Afghanistan, and is best known for her months-long investigation into the MSF hospital bombing in Kunduz, Afghanistan for The Intercept. This won the 2017 South Asian Journalists Association’s Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Report on South Asia, as well as the Prix Bayeux Calvados Award for War Correspondents in the Young Reporter category, as well as other awards. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the New York University Arthur L. Carter
