Academy of Int’l Studies Screens “16 Days in Afghanistan” Documentary

The Centre for Afghanistan Studies, Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia screened a documentary on Afghanistan – 16 Days in Afghanistan – by Anwar Hajher on Wednesday 14 October, 2015 at its Ho Chi Minh Conference Room, JMI.

The screening was followed by a discussion. Dr Angira Sen Sarma moderated the discussion in which participants exchanged views on general aspects of the documentary and its underlying meaning for Afghanistan and for the world engaged in war and rebuilding of the war-ravaged country.

One of the participants viewed the travelogue as a protagonist of ideas of Western democracy being imposed on a people alien to such notions. However, much of the discussion surrounded major themes of abysmal poverty, high illiteracy, wide-spread unemployment, poor commercial activity, and so on of the hour-long movie that focuses on Afghan culture in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Produced by Mithaq Kazimi, the film runs through 16 small plots wherein the Afghan-American actor-director Hajher is trying to rediscover his country after 25 years discussing issues with people from a wide-spectrum of the Afghan society in which the farewell is very nostalgic.

Prof. Shri Prakash, Dr Mathew Joseph C, Prof. Suresh Sharma, Dr K. N. Tennyson, teachers, research scholars and a large number of students from different departments of the university watched the film and participated in the discussion.