• Listen to this segment

GUESTS: Sahar Saba, Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

An Afghan government investigation recently revealed that a US military bombing in Western Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of between 42-50 civilians, including women and children. About 1600 families have been displaced and many others need urgent humanitarian aid. There have been large protests in Herat province against the attacks all week. Meanwhile, about 2,000 university students blocked a main highway between Kabul and Pakistan in protest of a separate incident involving US troops that killed 6 people in a house raid in Nagarhar. President Hamid Karzai has strongly denounced the killings, as he has done often in the past. However Karzai’s own credibility is in serious question with his people and members of the warlord dominated parliament. The on-going protests have been denouncing both the US presence and the Karzai government. In March, a large number of warlords in the Afghan parliament formed the National Unity Front demanding various constitutional reforms to curb the power of the president. Last weekend on April 28th, hundreds of Afghan women marched in front of the UN Headquarters in Islamabad, Pakistan to mark the 15th anniversary of the beginning of fundamentalist rule in Afghanistan. The rally was organized by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

For more information, visit www.rawa.org.

—————

KPFK is the media sponsor for the Asian Pacific Film Festival which started this week. A View From a Grain of Sand, by local film maker Meena Nanji will be airing as part of the festival. The film will be airing at the Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, on the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights on Saturday May 5th at 12 noon.

View From a Grain of Sand features three remarkable Afghan women who recall the past 30 years of women’s rights in Afghanistan in this powerful exploration of how US policy has set Afghanistan back decades. One of the women profiled is a member of RAWA.

More information about the Asian Pacific Film festival and a detailed film schedule, visit www.vconline.org.