Past Events
Kabul Beauty School Event
Monday, June 9 at 5:30 p.m.
The UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Chapter invites you to hear Deborah Rodriguez, author and hairdresser, as she talks about her book, Kabul Beauty School, on June 9, 2008, at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Chicago.
As it turned out, the Taliban had closed the city's hair salons, and the demand for haircuts was huge. Eventually Deborah Rodriguez ran both a salon and a nonprofit beauty school in Kabul that helped hundreds of women learn life-sustaining skills and gain economic independence. With beauty school skills, many women have been able to increase their income 10 to 20 times. And because men are not allowed to see uncovered women in Afghan society, this is the one and only industry in the country that women can own and operate without male influence.
Deborah Rodriguez spent five years teaching and later directing the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan. She also owned the Oasis Salon and the Kabul Coffee House. Rodriguez had to flee Kabul in May 2007 and now lives in Northern California. Her book, Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, coauthored with Kristin Ohlson, is a New York Times bestseller and has been optioned by Columbia Pictures. Now in paperback, it will be available for purchase and signing at the program.
5:30 p.m. Cash bar reception
6 p.m. Presentation and discussion
7:15 p.m. Book signing and cash bar reception
InterContinental Hotel
505 North Michigan
Chicago, IL 60611
Members $20 (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has generously extended the membership price to UNIFEM members and friends.)
Please click here to register
RemeMber to check member price, then indicate in the "Comments" field at the end that you received the invitation via UNIFEM.
UNIFEM Potluck Picnic in Millennium Park
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 5:30pm
Please join UNIFEM/USA Chicago Chapter's Annual Potluck Picnic. This year's
them is "Take a Friend to the Orchestra," and it will be a great chance
to socialize for a good cause!
Where: Grant Park Music Festival
205 East Randolph Drive, Chicago, IL 60601
Learn more about our organization and bring your favorite dish or drink
(alcohol is fine!) to share -- and don't forget your picnic blanket -- while
we listen to popular favorites by Wagner, Mozart, Debussy, Rossini, Barber
and Respighi.
UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Premiere of "Beyond Belief"
with post-screening discussion with director Beth Murphy
Wednesday, March 5 at 6pm
From the ashes of the World Trade Center to Kabul, two widowed American women leave their suburban homes and reach out to the most desperate villages in Afghanistan. In the process, they discover unlikely kinship with widows halfway around the world and a profound way to move beyond tragedy. Find out more about the "Beyond Belief" documentary, its director Beth Murphy and Principle Pictures.
Beyond Belief tells one of the most unique and moving stories to come out of 9/11. Every American who advocates killing in the names of the people who died that day should see it. For the rest of us, it's a sobering look at a country in crisis and an emotional journey taken with two awe-inspiring women." -- Daniel Holloway, Metro International.
This event was generously sponsored in part by the Jerome H. Stone Family Foundation.
|
Among those at the March film screening at the Sofitel Hotel in downtown Chicago were, from left, Lisa Schilling, Gillian Power, "Beyond Belief" director Beth Murphy, Sophia Wong Boccio, Dina Yaghmai, Chicago chapter president Marjan Farshchiha and Niamh King. |
|
John Kern and Thomas Grischany attend the documentary screening and discussion at the "Beyond Belief" screening in March at the Sofitel Hotel. |
|
The "Beyond Belief" film event was the biggest fund-raiser so far for the Chicago UNIFEM/USA chapter. Pictured from left are: Sophia Wong Boccio, Jim Stone, director Beth Murphy, Mary Cordero, Louise Kern, Lisa Schilling, Kate Hannigan, Marjan Farshchiha and Dina Yaghmai. |
UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Chapter's
Chocolate for Charity fundraising evening
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Vosges Haut-Chocolat Boutique
951 W Armitage, Chicago, IL
951 W Armitage, Chicago, IL
10% of all sales from the evening supported UNIFEM programming
UNIFEM/USNC Chicago Chapter's
Second Annual Luncheon - December 6, 2007
| Katrin Schultheiss, associate professor of history, and gender and women's studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was the featured speaker at the UNIFEM/USA Chicago Chapter's second annual luncheon on Dec. 6, 2007. |
| Members (from left) Louise Kern, Sophia Wong Boccio, Mimi Plauche and Lorraine Shoto attended the December luncheon at the Chicago Club in downtown. |
| Vice president of the UNIFEM/USA Chicago chapter Dina Yaghmai (left) and the Chicago chapter's founder and president Marjan Farshchiha welcomed nearly 100 participants to the second annual luncheon. |
| Board members (from left) Niamh King, Marjan Farshchiha, Lisa Schilling, Denise Ferguson and Dina Yaghmai worked behind the scenes to make the luncheon a success. |
