On January 18th and 19th, 2006, Building Bridges: Middle East - US hosted Azita Ranjbar. Ms. Ranjbar recently received an undergraduate degree from William and Mary College, and is beginning graduate studies at George Mason University. She has studied for 4 months at the Dekhoda Institute in Tehran, doing research on political apathy among Iranian youth. Last year, she spent 2 months in Afghanistan, working with the Afghan Women Judges Association.

In cooperation with the Women and Gender Studies Program at Dartmouth College, Building Bridges sponsored a presentation by Ms. Ranjbar entitled 'Reconstructing Cultural Identity: Post 9/11 Afghanistan and Iran.' Ms. Ranjbar described everyday life in Afghanistan, and the difficulty of working for social change. Systemic problems, such as widespread violence against women, a resurgence in the opium trade, and large numbers of refugees make rebuilding the embattled nation challenging. By contrast, Iran is much more stable, but many people are demoralized by the repressive government. Ms Ranjbar remains hopeful though, that the large numbers of youthful citizens will one day come into their own.

In addition to speaking to an audience of interested local citizens and academics, Ms. Ranjbar was a guest speaker in two Dartmouth classes, one studying women, space and Islam, and the other studying 20th century revolutions.