The Hoover Institution hosts Amplifying Afghan Voices: A Conversation on Media Freedom in Afghanistan on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 from 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. PT in Shultz Auditorium.
The return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan has stifled the ability of journalists, human rights activists, and historians to advocate for human freedom and amplify Afghan voices. Panelists Parwiz Kawa, Director of 8AM Media, Dr. Halima Kazem, Oral Historian for the Hoover Afghanistan Research and Relief Team, and Nader Nadery, Hoover Visiting Fellow, join H.R. McMaster to discuss the tragedy of Taliban rule and ideas about how those outside the country can understand the Afghan peoples’ experience and advocate for their freedom and security.
FEATURING
Parwiz Kaza is a Media Specialist, Civil Society Activist and Journalist in Hasht e Subh Daily Newspaper (in English, 8 AM Media), and a winner of “Journalist of Courage and Impact” award by East-West-Centre in 2018 and 2022. Hasht e Subh has also won the “Press Freedom Prize” by Reporters Without Borders in 2012, and an Emmy Award in 2023. Parwiz has more than 20 years of experience working with different monthly journals, radios, TVs and newspapers. He served as the Editor in Chief of the largest independent newspaper of Afghanistan for six years and is now serving as the Executive Director of Hasht e Subh. Parwiz has been a regular presenter on Afghanistan culture and society for NATO’s senior military officials and key leaders training events in the Netherlands. He is also a published poet and novelist. He graduated from the school of Law and Political Science of Kabul University and holds a master’s degree in Peace Studies, Conflict Transformation and International Development from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Dr. Halima Kazem is the Associate Director of Stanford University’s Program in Feminist, Gender, Sexuality studies. Halima’s work is deeply rooted in feminist methodologies and 26 years of working as a journalist, lecturer, human rights researcher, oral historian, and filmmaker. Her research intersects in the areas of gender, empire, human rights, and media with a focus on Afghanistan. Halima’s forthcoming book, A Feminist History of Afghanistan: Resisting the Erasure of Women, unearths and narrates the little-told feminist history of women’s movements in Afghanistan. It will be published in the fall of 2025. Halima is also collaborating with the Hoover Institution as an oral historian and building an oral history archive about the US Afghan war. From 2022-2024 Halima was a University of California Chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow, where she started directing a documentary film about the codification of gender apartheid as a crime under international law.
Nader Nadery is a visiting fellow at Hoover Institution and senior fellow at the Wilson Center, a civil society leader known internationally for advocating human rights and justice. He was a key negotiator between the Afghan government and the Taliban and held roles like commissioner of the Independent Human Rights Commission, senior advisor to the Afghan president and served in the Afghan government’s cabinet as chairman of Civil Service Commission. In 2012, he worked as chief of mission with NPWJ in Libya to promote rule of law. His writings appear in major outlets like Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Washington Post and BBC. Recognized as Time’s "Asian Hero" and Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and received Reebok Human Rights award, he holds degrees from Kabul University and George Washington University, and studied leadership at Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University. He speaks multiple languages including English, Dari, Pashtu, Baluchi and Hindi.
