The project: A short, personal film about female scholars in Afghanistan
Location: Toronto, Canada
The deadline: The film needs to be complete by the first week of September, so it can be aired for the 4th anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
The reason: This is a story that the world needs to hear

Who is Niki?

Niki is a talented student at a college in downtown Toronto. But just a few years ago, in 2021, she was still in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over the country, its military and its government. As a young Hazara woman and a scholar, Niki was in immediate danger.

The Taliban have been targetting Hazaras for decades - with violence, abductions and murder. Now in control of the country, there was nothing to stop them from carrying out their murderous plans to the final end.

The escape

Niki was one of the lucky ones, able to flee the country and finally find a new home in Canada. 

But she never lost sight of the women she knew - friends, classmates, relatives - who were not so lucky. When the Taliban shut down education for women, thousands of bright young women saw their dreams ruined. Their only role now? Marriage - and sometimes forced, at gunpoint, by Taliban abductors.

The movie

Niki has written a script for a short, artistic film that imagines what would have happened to her if she had stayed. It's called The Silence of a Girl and Niki is both the writer and main character of the film.

Fortunately, Niki has two friends who are Toronto filmmakers - Reza Jaffari and Javed Najafi - and are able to lend their talent and their network of other film talent to the project. They have an Oscar-nominated director of photography on board, as well as a professional lighting and sound crew and so on. Stephen Watt of Northern Lights Canada is helping with the script.

They're all doing it free of charge, because they believe this is a story that needs to be told. And who better to tell it than someone who lived it herself? 

To do the story justice, they have sourced professional film equipment at half the usual cost. For the very low cost of $3,500, they plan to make this film into a beautiful work of art. You can see the successful fundraiser here.

The result

The film will first be screened at George Brown College, where Niki is part of the Hazara Student Association. From there, the team hopes to show the film around the city, and at festivals around the world. 

Please help them, for the sake of the film, and for the sake of the hundreds of thousands of Afghan women who are suffering in silence. It's time their voice was heard.

Let's do this - together!