Zahra Joya & Karen Bartlett | Women in Afghanistan Today
Sat 21 Nov 2026 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm
A compelling conversation between leading human rights journalist Zahra Joya, now living in exile in London after being airlifted out of Kabul in 2021, and journalist Karen Bartlett who recently won the Orwell Prize 2026 for political writing with The Escape from Kabul. They are joined in conversation by Sir Laurie Bristow, former British Ambassador during the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in August 2021 and the UK’s subsequent evacuation of over 15,000 people from Kabul airport.
Chaired by Sir Laurie Bristow.
Venue: Old Divinity School
Duration: 1 hour
The Escape from Kabul is the 2026 winner of The Orwell Foundation Political Fiction Prize
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Author Biographies
Zahra Joya is a leading human rights journalist living in exile in London. She was airlifted out of Kabul in the chaotic days of the Taliban’s takeover of the country, in August 2021. A year earlier, Joya founded Rukhshana Media, Afghanistan’s first news agency dedicated to the stories of women – an online news source for Afghan woman. She is a former Time Magazine Woman of the Year and has won awards and accolades across the world including the Marie Colvin Award, the Gates Foundation Change Maker and CNN Champion for Change; she was named one of BBC’s 100 Women in 2022.
Karen Barlett was the youngest Director of human rights and democracy campaign group Charter88, and contributed as a speechwriter for President Nelson Mandela before becoming a journalist and working for the BBC and The Times, and writing for other publications including The Sunday Times, WIRED and Newsweek. She is the author of five works of non-fiction, including The Health of Nations and the Sunday Times bestseller After Auschwitz. She lives in London.
Chair Biography
Sir Laurie Bristow, appointed President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge in 2022, was a British diplomat for 32 years. He was Ambassador to Afghanistan during the fall of the Republic to the Taliban in 2021, the UK’s Ambassador to Russia from 2016 to 2020, and Deputy Ambassador to Russia from 2007 to 2010. He was Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2004 to 2007. Sir Laurie regularly writes and comments on Russia and national and international security issues. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, a Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network and Visiting Professor at LSE Ideas.
