Christina Lamb Recounts Death-Defying Encounters as War Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, October 12, 2010 – Male journalists often forget that the real heroes of war are women, according to Christina Lamb, war correspondent and current U.S. editor of the Sunday Times (London).
Speaking to an audience at Asia Society Washington, Lamb offered an appeal on behalf of Afghani woman, who she said have suffered the most from war. We should “not forget Afghanistan…however much we might want to get out of there."
Lamb covered the war in Afghanistan as Britain’s leading female war correspondent, after beginning her career interviewing Benazir Bhutto, then living in exile in London, as a 20-year-old budding reporter.
While reporting on the war, Lamb frequently found herself in danger. When the Taliban ambushed British troops in Helmand province in 2006, Lamb narrowly escaped with her life. She was again with Benazir Bhutto two months prior to her assassination, when her motorcade was bombed in Karachi.
Lamb said she had been criticized for her career choice by some who felt it was irresponsible for her as a mother to willingly risk her life. A male war correspondent, she lamented, would rarely be subject to such accusations.
Responding to critics, Lamb described striking a balance between the responsibilities of motherhood and her duties as a reporter. To support her son's bake sale, she once she interviewed Pakistani intelligence officials on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.