Fighting for Women's Rights: Afghanistan and Iran

We are living during a time when more restrictions are being placed on the lives of women and girls in a range of countries and cultures. Since the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover of Afghanistan, the group has placed limitations on employment, education, public interactions, and other fundamental rights such as access to justice. Iran’s morality police carry out brutality for breach of the country’s strict dress code. In the U.S., abortion bans are increasing.

Join Geeta Anand, Dean of the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, in conversation with PBS NewsHour correspondent Jane Ferguson, Rukhshana Media founder Zahra Joya, and reporter and senior editor for NPR's Morning Edition Arezou Rezvani. This event is organized by the Pulitzer Center and UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Support comes from the PIMCO Foundation.

Conversation and Q&A will be followed by a reception.

Geeta Anand is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who serves as dean and professor at the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Jane Ferguson is a PBS NewsHour correspondent, contributor to The New Yorker, and a recipient of multiple Pulitzer Center grants.

Zahra Joya is the founder of Rukhshana Media, Afghanistan’s first feminist news agency established in December 2020. Rukhshana was created with the aim of becoming the first national news source where Afghan women could see their own lives reflected in the stories published every day.

Arezou Rezvani is a reporter and senior editor for NPR's Morning Edition, and founding editor of Up First, NPR's daily news podcast