Under the Shroud: Women and the Taliban
The Feminist Majority's Lorraine Sheinberg created the 1999 documentary that first focused attention on the Taliban's brutal oppression of women in Afghanistan. It's worth another look now.
Long before the U.S. began military operations in Afghanistan, Lorraine Sheinberg and the Feminist Majority Foundation were working to draw attention to the repressive policies of the Taliban.
In 1999, Sheinberg produced “Shroud of Silence,” a 15-minute documentary. Narrated by Marlo Thomas, it chronicles the everyday struggle that was life for women under the Taliban regime. Among the honors for “Shroud of Silence” was the Special Jury Recognition award of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
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Documentary creator Lorraine Sheinberg
(click The documentary was also screened at the United Nations Special Session of the General Assembly, “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century (Beijing +5),” as part of the only Beijing +5 meeting held to solely discuss the ongoing crisis for women and girls in Afghanistan.
Sheinberg, a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, worked with Mavis Leno and other members of the group to focus public attention on the surge of gender oppression in Afghanistan.
The pleas of concerned activists unfortunately fell on deaf ears until the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
Other films by Sheinberg are “Revelations: Exposing the Radical Right,” 2000, and “Never Go Back: The Threat to Legalized Abortion,” 2001.
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