Powerful Pairing:
Kite Runner Author & Afghan Alumna

On October 22, the Women & Girls Fund of the Mid-Shore (Easton, Md.) presented “An Evening with Khaled Hosseini,” a panel discussion moderated by Kimberly Dozier, AP correspondent, and featuring special guest Dr. Hosseini, author of two international bestsellers, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Other panelists included Afghanistan’s Ambassador Said T. Jawad, Afghan author and journalist Nushin Arbabzadah, and Shamila Kohestani ’08. Former captain of the Afghanistan Girls Soccer Team, Shamila was forced by the Taliban from her home and now attends Drew University. She is a recipient of the ESPN Espy Arthur Ashe Courage Award and is featured in the book, However Tall the Mountain: A Dream, Eight Girls, and a Journey Home by Awista Ayub. Shamila is an advocate for women’s rights and plans to pursue a career in international relations or women’s studies.

Richard Marks ’68 (parent of Anna ’13) and Keith Patten ’69, members of the board of directors for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), assisted with the panel event; Dr. Hosseini is a goodwill envoy to this commission. Monie Hardwick and a group of Blair students traveled to the event. For more details, photos and bios of the panelists and moderator, click here. For the 2008 New York Times article featuring Shamila during her years at Blair, click here.

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Photos below by Richard Dorbin

Updated 10/29/2010

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