In A Strange Land

A migrant returns to her homeland; Afghanistan.

This 4 Corners episode follows Nel Hedayat who was 6 years old when her family escaped Afghanistan and moved to Britain.  At 21, Nel returns to Afghanistan in the belief that she will find her identity in the country of her birth.  What she does  find is women living lives where simple things like going to school or not obeying a husband can have terrible consequences.

“I found myself trying to reconcile my Afghan identity and my British one and somehow synthesize something new, an indentity that was a mixture of these two contrasting worlds. Trying to do what is right, but not knowing what right was, often made me confused and angry.”

Click here to read about the episode.

Further reading on the topic of women in  Afghanistan can be found here.

Growing up Asian in Australia

Alice Pung, the Australian born daughter of Cambodian refugees, is a writer and lawyer.  Her website provides links to excerpts from her books; “Growing up Asian in  Australia” and “Unpolished Gem” as well as to essays written for “The Age” newspaper.  “Citizenship” and “Failure” are both essays that are well worth a read.  “Citizenship” is a thoughtful response to the introduction of an Australian citizenship test and “Failure” addresses the problems associated with a “tunnel vision” view of HSC success.

Click here to see a fantastic interview featuring Alice from the Mildura Writers’ Festival.