Library Journal- January 2005

Canadian journalist Sally Armstrong journeyed to Afghanistan to investigate Afghan women's quest for women's rights. Similar to Nelofer Pazira in Return to Kandahar (Video Reviews, LJ 8/04), Armstrong connects with four women and one girl over the course of several months as they attempt to establish their place in the new post-Taliban society. Sima Samar , noted women's rights activist and briefly deputy prime minister of the new government, is prominently featured and eloquently advocates the need for continued support of her efforts. Armstrong also meets with several other women and a young girl who has yet to don the burqa. Of particular impact is the story of Camellah, who as a traditional Afghan woman has no control over her sexual activities or procreation. The film documents the struggle in an appealingly sincere manner. Highly Recommended.

Educational Media Reviews Online- February 18, 2005

In September 1996, the Taliban took over Afghanistan and forced women into their homes. They were not allowed health care or schooling, and certainly no birth control. Sally Armstrong calls the rescinding of the Afghani women's human rights a catastrophe that was “the worst, or one of the worst” things that had ever happened to women; and that the world looked the other way. In Armstrong's documentary, Daughters of Afghanistan , she follows the lives of five women living through the political and cultural changes in Afghanistan from the Taliban rule and beyond. The style of much of the film, having a voice-over of the interviews with beautiful landscape and city scenes from Afghanistan , is expertly used.

Armstrong looked forward to the day that the Taliban were defeated, to the day that women could be freed from their houses. She went to Afghanistan when this happened, and then two and four months afterwards, for progress reports to see how several women that she had met and touched her life had fared in the new government. Her primary focus was on Dr. Sima Samar, a strong woman who had early in life accepted an arranged marriage so that she could go to university and become a doctor, who had fought the Soviets, the Mujahidin, and then the Taliban, to do whatever she could to help women.

In the film, Armstrong describes several projects created by Dr. Samar for women and children. Dr. Samar built clinics and shelters for women and children, and a school for women. We meet other women too. Hamida, who is the principal of Samar 's high school for women, teaches women how to do things so that they can get jobs, like computer skills and driving. We meet Soghra, a widow, pregnant with her seventh child, who walked for nine nights from the country to Kabul avoid the Taliban so she could find shelter in Dr. Samar's refuge. Later we discover that her husband is alive, but that they were so poor that this was the only way for the family to survive. We also meet Camellah, who cannot say no to sex with her husband or use birth control because of cultural norms, even though she is pregnant with her ninth child and does not think she can live through another birth. And we meet Lima, who thinks she is thirteen, who has to be the mother for her four younger siblings, and whose favorite place to go to if she can get away is the graveyard where her parents are buried. Political changes after the fall of the Taliban initially promised some changes in the lives of women. Dr. Samar was named the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Women's Affairs in the first Afghani Government. However, the Islamic fundamentalists reasserted themselves quickly, and made sure that she was seen as an enemy to the religious state, and she was soon out of the government, the recipient of a fatwa, and getting death threats.

Some things are changing for women in Afghanistan , but others are not. Women (in Kabul ) are allowed out of their homes, unlike under Taliban rule, and some are allowed to seek medical attention and go to school. But many women still are expected to wear their Burqas, the long dress that covers their entire bodies, and in many families are still treated as brood mares. In the countryside, most things have not changed for women at all since the defeat of the Taliban. The larger picture demonstrates that political change cannot change cultural norms; it can provide a catalyst for change, but cultural change moves much more slowly than political change. This is especially true where religious fundamentalism is involved. This is something we are learning in Iraq today. This film is highly recommended for its relevance to women's studies, sociology, and Middle Eastern studies.

Video Librarian- November/December 2004

Since the fall of the Taliban, Islamic fundamentalism has "reasserted itself in a sinister way," according to Canadian journalist Sally Armstrong as she documents precisely how little has changed for women in that ravaged country in filmmaker Robin Benger's powerful, angry Daughters of Afghanistan.

Through the eyes of four Afghani women--including Dr. Sima Simar, who was, for a short time, a deputy prime minister in the new government, until hardline Islamic fascists demanded her removal (some going so far as to call for her death)--viewers learn that women remain virtual sex slaves to the husbands they are often forced to marry, are told that women remain afraid to walk the streets and are tormented by angry men even when they are wearing the burqa (i.e., veil), and are reminded that entire generations of women continue to be treated worse than second-class citizens. Yes, schools for girls have tentatively reopened and women are allowed to drive again, but for how long, Armstrong wonders. The human-rights disaster for women that occurred under the Taliban happened with the full knowledge of the rest of the world, and it seems destined to happen again under a new regime.

DVD extras--including a commentary track by Armstrong and an interview with Simar and others--only add fuel to righteous fire. A timely look at a disturbing situation, this is recommended.