Beth Murphy

When I left Boston for Afghanistan nearly six weeks ago, it was with some trepidation—the first I’ve felt despite several filming trips here. The Afghanistan I’m visiting this spring is not the same as the country I traveled to in 2001 and 2002, or 2006 and 2009; it has experienced a decade of war, and I’ve seen firsthand how the outlook has changed from one of cautious hope for a better future to one of grim acceptance that this last painful, protracted period of violence and political upheaval may still not yield freedom from oppression in this country.