The Afghan Women of Brattleboro
This six-episode audio documentary series tells the story of women who fled their homeland and built new lives in Southern Vermont. The series aired on Vermont Public radio in May 2025.
When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, the U.S. evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans whose lives were in danger. Some of them—including the 15 women in these stories—ended up in the town of Brattleboro. In many ways, they couldn’t be more different from each other. But they share a religion and a culture, and they all escaped a brutal fundamentalist regime back home. They left behind people and places they love, and the lives they expected to live.
Their arrival in Vermont brought change, not only for themselves, but also for the people and the town that welcomed them.
Episodes
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Producers: Jennifer Sutton, Elissa Pine, and Negina Azimi
Jennifer is a journalist, writer, and editor. Elissa directs a women’s artist retreat center. Both are longtime Brattleboro residents who were among the many volunteers helping Afghans resettle in 2022. Negina Azimi served as interpreter, script editor, and all-around advisor. She resettled in Vermont after leaving Kabul, Afghanistan, and works as a case manager for a refugee resettlement agency and with the Artlords, an international artist collective that originated in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Women of Brattleboro was funded by Vermont Public’s Made Here Fund, Vermont Humanities, The Windham Foundation, and The Arts Council of Windham County.
Thanks to Ziagul Azimi, who helped launch the project; voiceover actors Drukshan Farhad, Monishka Bidar, and Behishta Nikoofar; photographer Elizabeth Ungerleider; and designer Tekla McInerney.
Mastering by Dave Snyder.
Music:
“Documentary” by Dmitrii Kolesnikov, Pixabay
“Midnight Melody” by Siddhi, Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC 3.0
“Alone in Park” by Serge Quadrado, Free Music Archive, CC BY-NC 3.0
“Deep Cinematic Ballad” by Grand Project, Pixabay
“Positive Ambient Mood” by Valentin Iakovlev, Pixabay
“John Stockton Slow Drag” and “The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan” by Chris Zabriskie, Bandcamp
