Greater Newburyport Village Talk on Afghan Culture

In December the Taliban banned the participation of women in higher education. This was just the latest in a series of brutal reversals of the role of women in this country. From noon to 1:00 on Wednesday, January 18th, the Greater Newburyport Village will host Susan Carnduff, a Newburyport resident, who lived and worked in Kabul helping Afghanistan citizens develop an understanding of fundamentals of representational government. Susan will share her perspective of Afghan culture based on her role and answer questions in an interactive presentation at the Newburyport Senior Center.
From March 2008 until July 2010, Susan was the Resident Director for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) which is based in Washington, D.C. The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness, and accountability in government. Susan’s work was focused in three major areas: women in politics; political party development; and skills development for provincial council representatives. In this role, Susan directed the work of about 90 Afghans, mostly men, as well an international staff of Americans, Australians, Iranians, Slovenians and English. The staff operated out of seven regional offices throughout the country. This gave Susan the opportunity to travel extensively in Afghanistan.
Prior to this assignment Susan had worked for seven years in the Balkans first for the Organization For Security and Cooperation in Europe and then for the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia. In the latter role she was heavily involved in organizing and designing the memorial for the victims of the Srebrenica massacre. She also worked and lived for 2.5 years in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Susan is a graduate of Suffolk Law School as well as the University of Pennsylvania where she studied Government and International Relations. Susan has continued to demonstrate her commitment to citizen participation in government by volunteering as a poll worker for Ward 2.
The talk is free and open to the public. Village Talks are offered by the Greater Newburyport Village for the enrichment of the community; they occur every third Wednesday of the month.
For more information about Village Talks, check the event calendar at www.greaternewburyportvillage.org, call 978 206-1821, or email:
info@greaternewburyportvillage.org