The ACF DC proudly presents The Last Ambassador, a powerful documentary by Austrian filmmaker Natalie Halla. Come and see how Afghanistan’s last female Ambassador, Manizha Bakhtari, continues her courageous fight for the rights of Afghan women and girls after the Taliban’s return to power.
After the screening, a panel discussion with Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari (Ambassador of Afghanistan to Austria), Metra Mehran (Policy Advisor, End Gender Apartheid Campaign), and Natalie Halla (Film Director, The Last Ambassador) will take place. The discussion is moderated by Afghan-American author Nadia Hashimi and followed by a Q&A.
The event is co-hosted by the End Gender Apratheid Campaign and the Malala Fund.
The film is in English and Dari with English subtitles.
ABOUT THE FILM
Original title: The Last Ambassador
Genre: Documentary
Year: 2025
Length: 80 min
Country of Origin: Austria
Language: English and Dari
Director: Natalie Halla
Production Company: Golden Girls Filmproduktion & Filmservices GmbH
The Afghan Ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, has found herself in a bizarre situation since the Taliban took power: she represents a country whose old government has fled and whose new Taliban government is not recognized internationally. Despite financial and logistical isolation, Manizha Bakhtari is defying the Taliban to continue her fight for the rights of Afghan women and girls. Through her ‘Daughters’ programme, she enables secret education to Afghan schoolgirls while organising political resistance against the Taliban. Under increasingly difficult conditions, she becomes one of the most important international spokespersons for the women of Afghanistan, true to her motto ‘peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice’.
PROGRAM
6:00 PM | Doors Open
6:30 PM | Introductory Remarks
H.E. Petra Schneebauer, Ambassador of Austria to the United States of America
Farhat Ariana Azami, Impact Producer, The Last Ambassador
6:40 PM | Film Screening The Last Ambassador
8:00 PM | Panel Discussion and Q&A moderated by Nadia Hashimi
H.E. Manizha Bakhtari, Ambassador of Afghanistan to Austria
Metra Mehran, Policy Advisor, End Gender Apartheid Campaign
Natalie Halla, Film Director, The Last Ambassador
8:45 PM | Closing Remarks and Reception Opening
Sarah Bamberger, Director, Austrian Cultural Forum Washington
8:50 PM | Networking Reception
This event is part of the campaign Orange the World: 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
CO-HOSTS
End Gender Apartheid Campaign: In March 2023, a group of feminists, human rights defenders, and jurists from Afghanistan and Iran, together with international allies, launched the grassroots End Gender Apartheid Campaign. The End Gender Apartheid Campaign is committed to dismantling and preventing gender apartheid regimes through the codification of gender apartheid as a crime under international and domestic law.
Malala Fund: Established by Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai in 2013, the Malala Fund envisions a world where all girls can learn and choose their own futures. The Malala Fund invests in civil society organisations who are challenging the systems, policies and practices that prevent girls from going to school in their communities.
PANELISTS
Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari |
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Manizha Bakhtari is a diplomat, lecturer, and author whose career spans diplomacy, literature, and advocacy. She currently serves as Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the UN and international organizations in Vienna, representing her country at institutions such as the UNODC, IAEA, CTBTO, and OSCE.
With academic roots in journalism and literature, she has long championed education, dialogue, and the rights of Afghan women and girls. She holds degrees from Kabul University, where she later taught journalism, and co-founded the Parnian Publication Center to support Afghan writers and free expression.
The author of eight books on media, ethics, and literature, her work explores identity, exile, and the interplay of media and power.
She began her diplomatic career in 2007 and later served as Ambassador to the Nordic Countries and Ambassador to Austria. Since 2021, she has represented democratic Afghanistan abroad, advocating for human rights after the Taliban takeover. In 2024, she received the OSCE White Ribbon Award. She is also a founding member of the Dukhtaran Program supporting Afghan girls’ education.
Metra Mehran |
Policy Advisor, End Gender Apartheid Campaign
Metra Mehran is a human rights activist with over a decade of experience in international development, Women, Peace, and Security, and gender equality. Now living in exile, she advocates for the recognition of the systematic and institutionalized oppression of women under the Taliban as gender apartheid and its codification under international law. As the founder of the Afghanistan Justice Archive, she monitors Taliban decrees, collects testimonies documenting their impact on women’s lives, and analyzes these findings within the framework of international law. Through this work, she seeks to leverage international accountability mechanisms to hold the Taliban responsible for their violations of women’s rights.
Natalie Halla |
Film Director of The Last Ambassador
Natalie Halla was born on November 18, 1975 in Linz (Austria) as the granddaughter of two well-known Austrian painters. At the age of 16 she spent one year with a Russian host family in Moscow witnessing the collapse of the Soviet Union. She studied law and translation (Russian, Spanish) at Karl-Franzens University of Graz, spent one semester with the ERASMUS program in Spain and wrote her thesis in law at the Jerusalem University on “Implementation of Human Rights on the Example of Freedom of Religion in Israel”, for which she got an award for excellency. At the age of 22 she became an intern of the United Nations Drug Control Program in Peru. After several years of further studies and working in France and Spain, she concentrated on documentary film direction and production. Since 2010 she has worked as producer, script writer and director of ten award winning feature length documentaries, mainly focused on human rights and social issues.
© Image: Amina Stella
Nadia Hashimi | Author
Nadia Hashimi is a pediatrician turned novelist who draws on her Afghan culture to craft internationally bestselling books for adults as well as young readers. Her novels span generations and continents, taking on themes like forced migration, conflict, poverty, misogyny, colonialism, and addiction. She enjoys conversations with readers of all ages in libraries, book festivals, classrooms, and living rooms. Video calls with book clubs are a favorite hobby. With translations in seventeen languages, she’s connected with readers around the world. She continues to serve on boards of organizations committed to educating and nurturing Afghanistan’s most vulnerable children and empowering the female leaders of tomorrow. She is a member of the US-Afghan Women’s Council and the Afghan-American Foundation.
© Image: Golden Girls Film