Education Apartheid in Afghanistan was World Affairs Council of Orange County’s first ever Lunch and Learn, in partnership with UC Irvine’s School of Law’s Center on Globalization, Law, and Society and the Afghan Literacy Foundation.

Aditya Arya, executive director and co-founder of the Afghan Literacy Foundation, Hashmat Nadipor, legal expert and leader of the Afghanistan Human Rights Project at UCI Law, and Muslema Purell, assistant religious director at The Majlis, spoke on the impacts of Taliban’s policies on young girls’ and womens’ access to education during this hour-long lunchtime program.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, women and girls rapidly returned to schools, creating effects such as increased economy and lower infant mortality rate.

The three experts discussed the short and long-term implications of the termination of both basic and higher education for women after the return of the Taliban in 2021, not just for women, but what it means economically and societally.

Cyber Espionage: Threats & Realities featured Admiral Michael Rogers, former director of the National Security Agency and commander of US Cyber Command on the evening of January 9th at the Irvine Marriott.

Amidst the chaos of the fires in Los Angeles, Admiral Rogers spoke on the ever-evolving cyberspace, AI, and technology, and their impact on our national security, moderated by Serge Tomassian.

Admiral Rogers’ conversation emphasized the emerging use of cyber-attacks to infiltrate U.S. information systems and infrastructures, as well as further steps to guarantee not just quick recovery after but prevention and resilience against cybersecurity attacks.

There was also the debate of AI’s role in cybersecurity, how it may be used in both malicious and benevolent manners in the online battlefield, and to what extent it should be restrained by legal means.

Admiral Rogers stresses the importance of a joint effort between federal, academic, and private areas to further grasp the relatively modern topic of cybersecurity.