(State's Paula Dobriansky introduces "Afghanistan Unveiled" in Washington) (770) Washington -- Many in the audience at the U.S. premiere of the documentary film "Afghanistan Unveiled" wept as the story of Afghan women and children played out on the big screen of the Woodrow Wilson Center's auditorium in Washington on April 24. But there was a collective cheer when the film's star story teller declared, "I am no longer afraid. In my mother's memory, I refuse to wear the burka." The Asia Foundation, in partnership with the Department of State, hosted the U.S. premiere of this rare documentary, which was perhaps the first of its kind. Bob Hathaway of the Woodrow Wilson Center and Bill Fuller, President of The Asia Foundation opened the event and introduced Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary for Global Affairs at the Department of State as the speaker for the evening. "Afghanistan Unveiled" is a story about Afghan women told by Afghan women, as Carol Yost, Director of Women's Programs at the Asia Foundation explained. The film weaves together three potent tales -- first hand accounts by four survivors of Taliban abuse; the epiphany of the fourteen novice women film makers on their journey of understanding of life under the regime; and finally a prophesy of a better future. Afghans interviewed in the film told of terrible things that the Taliban did to the country's women and children. Zainab, a Hazara woman featured in the film, seen living in a cave near Bamiyan without access to water, told harrowing stories of life under the regime. "The Taliban made everyone's life a misery," she said. "They came like a great plague. They looted and they killed and they burned down the houses. ... [T]hey cut the women's breasts off ... [A]ll our houses were bulldozed with the women and children still inside ... [T]hey put a black mark on history," she said, poised next to the spot where the giant Buddhas were destroyed in 2001. Zainab was shown stirring a lentil soup, her only food in many months, on an open fire, surrounded by her village's widows and orphans. "You think life is bad now [post Taliban]," she grins. "This is nothing compared to the harshness of life under the Taliban." Some viewers were shocked by the grim landscape of rural Afghanistan and the harsh realities that Afghans face as they rebuild their country. The young novice reporters, all from Kabul, were also amazed at the hardship women face. One vowed, "We can never again claim ignorance. We must defend the rights of women to have a decent life, to be educated, to work and to choose their own husbands." The Department of State funded this documentary film project through a grant to the Asia Foundation to collect oral histories and to create a training opportunity for aspiring Afghan video artists and documentary filmmakers. The Asia Foundation in turn identified an indigenous non-governmental organization (NGO) to take on the challenge. They selected AINA, who name means "mirror" in Dari, a dominant language in Afghanistan. AINA runs Kabul's Afghan Media and Culture Center and offers classes in journalism with the goal of encouraging a free and independent media tradition in Afghanistan. It wasn't easy at first to find women in Kabul whose families would allow them to take on the arduous task of taping the interviews for the oral history and what eventually became "Afghanistan Unveiled", even though the training was a great incentive. None of the fourteen journalist trainees had ever traveled outside Kabul. Except for one, none had been able to study or pursue careers or work while the Taliban controlled their country. Ultimately the filmmakers interviewed 70 Afghan women. "Afghanistan Unveiled," the documentary, records the quest for the truth these fourteen budding journalists undertook. "The resulting film will make you cry, make you laugh, and make you cheer for the ever resilient Afghan women you see, and make you want to reach into your wallet for a donation to the old lady with the orphans," noted one State Department official familiar with the project. Dobriansky, in her remarks at the premiere, noted that more than "two million girls returned to schools this year," eight times the number from the year before. "Our work in Afghanistan is far from finished," she said. "But we can take some pride in what we have accomplished there in a relative short time." She added that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan "will not change, despite other events in the world."