Bylines & Frontlines, Episode 3: From Tragedy to Accountability: Gender-Based Violence and State Responsibility

In this powerful episode of Bylines and Frontlines, hosts Frieda Castellanos and Dr. Colleen Bell take on one of the most urgent global issues of our time—gender-based violence in contexts where states are unresponsive or complicit. Recorded on the eve of Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the discussion bridges histories of harm and the ongoing struggle for justice. Our guests bring deep expertise and lived commitment to this topic: Murwarid Ziayee, Senior Director at Right to Learn Afghanistan, reflects on how women’s rights and safety have been systematically eroded under Taliban rule—and the quiet networks still keeping hope alive. Sheila North, journalist, filmmaker, and former Grand Chief of MKO, shares hard-won insights from her work on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada, including her acclaimed documentary 1200+ and memoir My Privilege, My Responsibility. Soma Bidarpour, Kurdish scholar and PhD researcher at the University of Ottawa, unpacks how authoritarian regimes in Iran and Afghanistan weaponize control over women’s bodies as a form of state violence. Together, they examine how impunity is sustained, how journalism and advocacy can shift narratives, and how communities across Afghanistan, Iran, and Canada are resisting and reshaping their futures. Listeners will come away with both structural insights and concrete actions—from survivor-centered reporting to data sovereignty, legal reform, and transnational solidarity.