Screening of 'Rethink Afghanistan'

Rethink Afghanistan: Why are we there and what does it mean?

A free screening of the film Rethink Afghanistan is scheduled for 7:00pm, Tuesday, October 6 in Gailor Auditorium. The 72-minute documentary examines the consequences of military escalation in Afghanistan and how the war could further destabilize a nuclear-armed Pakistan. The cost of sending one U.S. soldier to Afghanistan is over $700,000. Why? Conditions of Afghan women are drastically worse since the U.S. invasion in October of 2001. Why? What is the relationship between Al-Qaida and the Taliban? A discussion will follow the film, with Dr. Arthur Knoll, Dr. Yasmeen Mohiuddin, and Henry Hamman serving as discussion leaders. Dr. Knoll is a former professor of Middle Eastern history. Dr. Mohiuddin is a Pakistani native. In her role as Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University, she established Sewanee's Summer-in-South Asia Program, enabling students to travel to Bangladesh and study the Grameen Bank’s success in making loans to the severely impoverished population. Journalist Henry Hamman set up a relief program for Afghan refugees in western Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and reported on the negotiations that led to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan; his novel, LAPIS, is set in Afghanistan. The screening of Rethink Afghanistan is being cosponsored by the African American Alliance and the Cumberland Center for Justice and Peace. For more information, contact Leslie Lytle at 592-6594 or sllytle@blomand.net.