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Women's rights are being dismantled in so many ways around the world. One place where this dismantling has happened in the extreme is Afghanistan. In this week's episode we talk Cara Cruikshank about how some of the women in Afghanistan are surviving, maintaining their humanity, and maintaining connection.
As a writer, director, producer, advocate and educator Cara brings an artist's vision to humanitarian work, and something rarely seen in crisis response: the understanding that people experiencing trauma need more than survival skills—they need spaces to imagine, to heal, and to become.
After the Taliban seized Afghanistan in 2021 and the world watched its women disappear from public life, Cara asked Afghan women what they needed most—then listened deeply to their response. The result is Voices Unveiled, a holistic underground school and self empowerment program that stands nearly alone in the digital education landscape for recognizing what Afghan women themselves identified as their deepest need: not just marketable skills, but psychological healing, feminist consciousness, and the reclamation of their right to dream. What began as a comprehensive 12-week self-empowerment course has blossomed into a full educational ecosystem, now offering over a dozen elective courses spanning the humanities, arts, mindfulness, sciences, and technology—all grounded in the principle that sustainable transformation requires addressing the whole person: mind, body, and spirit.
Today, Voices Unveiled works with hundreds of women and girls ages 13 to 30 across Afghanistan and beyond. As founder and executive director, Cara leads a global network of over 30 volunteers creating what one student calls “a revolution within me”—proving that education, when it addresses the whole person, becomes a powerful act of resistance.
Where to find Voices Unveiled and Cara Cruikshank: Website: voicesunveiled.org
IG: @VoicesUnveiled_Afghan
Facebook: @CafedelaCulture
LinkedIn: Voices Unveiled
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