HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL New York 02

What Tomorrow Brings

What Tomorrow Brings follows one year in the life of the first all-girls school in a remote, conservative Afghan village. The film traces the inter-connected stories of those who bring the school to life: students, teachers, village elders, parents, and school founder Razia Jan. While the girls learn to read and write, their education goes far beyond the classroom to become lessons about tradition and time. They discover their school is the one place they can turn to understand the differences between the lives they were born into and the lives they dream of leading.

Filmmaker(s): Beth Murphy
Country of Production: Afghanistan/US
Year: 2015, 90m
Language(s): In English and Dari with English subtitles
Genre: Documentary

Filmmaker Bio(s): 

Beth Murphy

Director, Producer

Beth Murphy founded Principle Pictures in 1999 to do what she loves doing most: meeting inspiring people, telling great stories, and using media as a catalyst for good. She has directed, produced, written and in some cases narrated nearly 20 documentary films for national and international media outlets.

Film Website: 

Principle Pictures website

Presented in partnership with: 

Rotary District 7950 with the support of DG Valerie Perry

Much of Afghanistan's future will depend on whether its girls can read or not. What Tomorrow Brings is both an indictment of how tenuous access to education still is in Afghanistan and a moving depiction of Afghan girls and their teachers pursuing learning at all costs. —Heather Barr, senior researcher, Women's Rights Division

Afghanistan's Taliban government banned girls from school. When the Taliban was toppled in 2001, the new Afghan government and its donors began the enormous project of recreating an educational system for girls. Fourteen years later, millions of girls attend school, but the project is far from complete. Less than half of Afghan girls are in school, and dropout rates are extremely high. Girls struggle to study in the face of attacks on schools, students, and teachers by insurgents, poverty, child marriage, and a lack of skilled teachers, safe buildings, books, and even basic facilities – at a moment when donor funding and interest is fading fast.

Human Rights Watch video on Military Use of Schools