Please join Hillel at CSI in an evening with Professor Emerita Phyllis Chesler, as she discusses her new autobiography, An American Bride in Kabul, on Thursday, Oct. 30 in the Campus Center (Building 1C) Green Dolphin Lounge at 7:00pm.
Twenty years old and in love, Phyllis Chesler, a Jewish American girl from Brooklyn, embarked on an adventure that has lasted for more than a half-century. In 1961, she arrived in Kabul with her Afghan bridegroom, and authorities took away her U.S. passport, leaving her with no rights of citizenship. Drawing upon her personal diaries, she recounts her ordeal, the nature of gender apartheid, and shows how she turned adversity into a passion for worldwide social, educational, and political reform. What she learned about Afghan and Islamic culture will help the audience understand many of the global challenges of the 21st century—including fundamentalist misogyny, religious intolerance, terrorism, the fate of progressives, and cultural misunderstandings.
In An American Bride in Kabul, Phyllis Chesler reveals her nightmare experience as a young bride in Afghanistan in the early 1960s. Chesler was 18 when fell in love with a handsome older Afghan man whom she met when the pair were studying at Bard College. After dating for two years, the pair married and went to Kabul to visit his family and when they arrived, officials took her passport. Over her months in the family’s compound, her husband began to hit her and she, like many women in the country, had no rights. Finally, she was able to flee the country for medical treatment after becoming seriously ill, and she had her marriage annulled on her return.
Phyllis Chesler is a Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women’s Studies at The City University of New York, a best-selling author of 15 books, including the classic Women and Madness; a legendary feminist leader; and a psychotherapist.
Tickets can be purchased for $25, but admission is free for students and CSI faculty/staff. All profits benefit the leadership programs of Hillel at the College of Staten Island. Tickets for the lecture series can be purchased online, by check (made out to Hillel at CSI), or at the door. For more information and to RSVP, please call Amy Posner at 718.982.3006. The Hillel at the College of Staten Island is a 501(C)3 organization.
