TC3 Honors International Women's Day with Screening with Exiled Afghan Filmmaker

In honor of International Women’s Day, Tompkins Cortland Community College hosted a film screening with acclaimed exiled Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi. 

Karimi is the first, and only, Afghan woman to earn a Ph.D. An award-winning director and screenwriter with more than 30 films to her credit, she was also the first woman to serve as chairperson of the Afghan Film Organization prior to being forced to flee the country when the Taliban regained power in 2021. Her documentary Parlika is a portrait of a woman and the crimes perpetrated by men against activists and the women in their family, all because they were determined to acquire basic education.

Following the screening, a question and answer session gave TC3 students the chance to learn more about both filmmaking and life for a woman in Afghanistan. Karimi’s visit to campus was made possible through a collaboration between Ithaca City of Asylum, Cornell South Asia Program, Ithaca College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College.

Photo caption (from left to right): accounting student Awe Mon, Sahraa Karimi, and computer science student Hajar Ahmadi