September 17, 2019
'Roles of Women and Religion in the Afghan Peace Process' lecture on Sept. 24
Palwasha Kakar, senior program officer for religion and inclusive societies at the U.S. Institute of Peace, will give a public lecture titled "Roles of Women and Religion in the Afghan Peace Process." The lecture is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, at Town Hall in the Leadership Studies Building.
Kakar joined the institute after four years with The Asia Foundation where she was the Afghanistan director for Women’s Empowerment and Development. Before joining the foundation, Kakar led the Gender Mainstreaming and Civil Society Unit in the United Nation Development Program's Afghanistan Subnational Governance Program managing a small grants program for Afghanistan's civil society initiatives. She also served as program manager for the Gender Studies Institute at Kabul University. She has experience working with the World Bank Group on gender, social justice and environmental issues surrounding their various projects in the region.
An Afghan-American, Kakar has experience teaching and researching religion, gender, security and local governance. She has published research regarding women's participation in local governance, Pashtunwali-Afghan customary law, Afghan women's identity, and social spaces in Afghanistan. Her research has taken her to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Syria.
This lecture is sponsored in part by the Office of International Programs, the political science department, the Staley School of Leadership Studies, the Dow Center of Multicultural and Community Studies, and the English Language program at K-State. The lecture is also part of the Vernon Larson Lecture Series, the longest-running lecture series at K-State for international speakers and visionaries.