RUNDOWN

17:15     Registration
17:30     Film screening
18:15     Panel discussion

ASHK member price: HKD80
Non-member price: HKD120

Asia Society Hong Kong Center is proud to present a screening of The Noble Guardian, an award-winning documentary about Mahbouba Seraj, a 73-year-old Afghan women’s rights activist who runs the last remaining shelter for abused women in Afghanistan, and who, despite the risks she faces, refuses to leave Afghanistan and abandon the women and girls who rely on her protection.

Following the screening, we will host a panel discussion featuring Ms. Seraj in conversation with the film’s director, Anna Coren, an Emmy award-winning international correspondent, anchor, and filmmaker, and the film’s director of photography, Mark Philipps, an Emmy award-winning cameraman who has worked in broadcast journalism for more than 35 years.

Anna Coren, Director, is an Emmy award-winning international correspondent, anchor, and filmmaker covering conflict zones, natural disasters, political crises, and women’s rights.

For the past 14 years, she has worked with CNN covering some of the world’s biggest news events — from war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Crimea to natural disasters such as the Japanese tsunami and super typhoons in the Philippines. She has sat down with world leaders including US President Bill Clinton and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Her work has won multiple awards including an Emmy in 2022 for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form ‘9yo Afghan sold into marriage’. Her exclusive reporting of child marriage in Afghanistan ultimately led to the rescue of the child bride and her family by a US charity. She has also won Gracie (Alliance of Women in Media) and Human Rights Press Awards for her child bride coverage, the Royal Television Society (RTS) award for the Hong Kong protests, and several Asian TV Awards for Taliban Firefight story and anchoring.

In 2022 she made her debut as a documentary filmmaker with The Noble Guardian about Afghan women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj. The film won Best Documentary at the 2023 LA Shorts International Film Festival and is eligible for the 2024 Academy Awards.

Mark Phillips, Director of Photography, is an Emmy award-winning cameraman who has worked in broadcast journalism for more than 35 years joining CNN in 1993. He has covered conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria and has spent the past year extensively covering the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

In the 2000s, he was one of the first journalists to enter Kabul, Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and was embedded with the British forward command for the second Iraq war. He was the pool camera for the start of Saddam Hussein trial.

In 2013 Phillips was honoured with an Emmy for photojournalism for his work in Afghanistan and the Philippines. In 2017 he won a second Emmy for his coverage in Syria and Iraq. Phillips has 15 Emmy nominations and has also received awards from the Royal Television Society, Peabody, and Dupont.

The Noble Guardian is the 7th documentary that Phillips’ has worked on as Director of Photography.  The film won Best Documentary at the 2023 LA Shorts International Film Festival and is eligible for the 2024 Academy Awards.

Mahbouba Seraj is an Afghan women’s rights activist and executive director of Afghan Women Skills Development Centre who runs the last remaining shelter for abused women in Afghanistan.

After spending 26 years in exile after fleeing the Communists in the late 1970’s, Mahbouba returned to Afghanistan in 2003 to work with the women of her country and help improve their lives.  She campaigned for women’s participation in the Peace Jirga and High Peace Council. When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Mahbouba refused to flee; choosing to stay in Kabul and protect her girls and staff ignoring the pleas of the US military and embassy. Despite the ever-present danger, Mahbouba has remained a powerful voice for the women of Afghanistan as the Taliban systematically erase women from society.

In 2021 Mahbouba was on the list of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. Later that year she addressed the UN Security Council on the plight of Afghans under Taliban rule. She has been nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. (Photo credit: Getty Images)

About The Noble Guardian:

Mahbouba Seraj had what every other Afghan wanted. A US passport and protected passage through the frenzied masses that had descended on Kabul International Airport in late August 2021, desperate to flee Afghanistan and the brutal Taliban regime that had just seized power, following the US withdrawal.

But this 73-year-old Afghan women’s rights activist refused to leave. Who would protect her girls in the country’s last remaining shelter for abused women? Who would fight for the rights of women who had been promised a future for 20 years only to be abandoned by the West?

This is the story of Mahbouba Seraj. A Pashtun with royal lineage named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2021. She believes her responsibility is to help the women of Afghanistan now forced to live with systemic oppression in what is widely considered the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world today.

Director Anna Coren has been reporting from Afghanistan for the past decade. She returned to document Mahbouba’s courageous and prescient story, obtaining rare access and interviews that would no longer be possible.

Sign-up link

https://bit.ly/3PzRxlV

The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and participants and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, do not reflect the opinion, position or official policy of Asia Society Hong Kong, its members, or its committees. Asia Society Hong Kong does not endorse or approve and assumes no responsibility for the content of the information presented.