THE LAST AMBASSADOR

BRUNO KREISKY FORUM IM KINO

Location:
VOTIVKINO
Währingerstraße 12 I 1090 Wien

Screening and Panel Discussion

THE LAST AMBASSADOR

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan by force in August 2021 after overthrowing the government. Ever since, the idea of a functioning modern state based on the rule of law and citizens’ rights, good governance and human rights has continuously been dismantled. As in all fundamentalist regimes, women and girls are the first target group and most seriously effected in society.

The documentary The Last Ambassador portrays the work of H.E. Manizha Bakhtari, Ambassador of Afghanistan to Austria. Based on the recognition of Her Excellency by Austria, she continues to represent her country in Vienna despite all odds. Facing increasing difficulties and pressures, her mission stands as a unique example in contemporary diplomacy: a feminist voice in exile of a diplomat whose government in Kabul lacks recognition by the Austrian government. Through her ‘Daughters’ program, she enables secret education to Afghan schoolgirls while organizing political resistance against the Taliban.  “Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice“, says Amb. Manizha Bakhtari and keeps on rallying for the rights and opportunities of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Following the screening, a panel discussion with Amb. Manizha Bakhtari, Edit Schlaffer (founder of Women without Borders), and Farhat Ariana Azami (Solidarity Group Afghanistan), moderated by Katharina Wagner (ORF) will shed light on the Afghanistan under the Taliban rule and what consequences this totalitarian and fundamentalist regime has had on everyday life, on society and how the fundamental human rights and public participation of women and girls in particular have been abolished and curbed. The right to education has gone, too. How can we show solidarity and what can we do to support democratic, progressive forces in Afghanistan and in the diaspora

Please note: The film will be in Farsi and English with English subtitles, the discussion will be held in English.

Tickets for the screening are 10,50 EUR.

Manizha Bakhtari, Afghan career diplomat, former journalist and lecturer, and an outspoken advocate for women’s rights. In her diplomatic career she served as Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland), and was subsequently appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Austria as well as Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations agencies and other international organisations in Vienna.

Edit Schlaffer, Founder and Chair of Women without Borders. A social scientist, Edit founded WwB in 2001focusing on capacity building of women and gender-based peacebuilding strategies.

Farhat Ariana Azami, social worker and advocate for the rights of women, girls, and refugees. She is the President of Solidarity Group Afghanistan, an Austria-based association that provides secret homeschooling for girls and creates sustainable livelihood opportunities for women in Afghanistan and advocates for the global recognition and codification of gender apartheid.

Moderator:
Katharina Wagner, journalist at the foreign news department of the Austrian Broadcaster ORF; former ORF correspondent in Paris and Rome and ORF- Bureau Chief in Istanbul and Tehran until recently.

A collaboration between the Bruno Kreisky Forum, Women Without Borders, Gender Champions and Solidaritätsgruppe Afghanistan.