Shiza Shahid, a 20-year-old Stanford student, took Taliban denial of girls’ education into her own hands last year after the violent insurgents shut down all girls schools in the Swat Valley, Pakistan, only 100 miles away from where she grew up. Shahid’s anger drove her to mobilize assistance to 26 girls, who joined her last summer in Islamabad for workshops and emotional relief. Waves of violence in the Swat Valley had left schools burned, family members abducted and in some cases, murdered. The project, Shajar-e-llm, or Tree of Knowledge, was kept quiet in order to protect the girls from further threat.

Multimedia Content VIDEO: Tree of Life Program VIDEO: A Schoolgirl’s Odessey in Swat

As the din of controversy continues to rage on the question of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and drone operations in the border with Pakistan, we often miss the realities of what families there on the ground actually contend with. See Multimedia Content here for “A Schoolgirl’s Oddessey,” the New York Times VIDEO featuring a young girl torn from her school in Swat, and forced to journey away from all that she loves.

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President Obama is edging closer to a decision on whether to reinforce the 68,000 U.S. troops who will be fighting in Afghanistan by year’s end. Since routing out Al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts in Afghanistan after 9-11, the Taliban has made a steady comeback, fueled by failures of the Bush administration, profits from the opium trade and corruption under the country’s president, Hamid Karzai. Amid accusations of fraud during the August 20th presidential election and a deteriorating internal security situation, the country seems poised on foundations so tenuous that our leaders are in conflict about what to do.

Multimedia Content Artist SLIDESHOW: Recent Tour in Afghanistan Artist SLIDESHOW: Medics on the Front Line

General Stanley McChrystal is calling for 30,000 or more additional US troops. While Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham are in support of the proposal, President Obama seems unconvinced that sending more troops is warrented, and a credible future exit strategy appears elusive at best, given the circumstances.

Author Gordon Goldstein talks with the German news source, Spiegel Online, about the lessons of Viet Nam, in which he sees historical parallels to the current Afghanistan predicament. President Obama asked his security advisors to read Goldstein’s book, “Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam,” which traces the events that mired the U.S. in a tragic situation. See the INTERVIEW here.

The BBC is posting some remarkable images by artists who have documented the scene in Afghanistan (and elsewhere.) Check out Multimedia Content below to see a few samples in this poignant Slideshow series.

For artists and others:
The BBC features some wonderful interactive programming online. Weigh in on Afghanistan or other cutting edge topics by submitting your work:

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