Perhaps the passion to help these innocent victims was the driving force that allowed Saira Shah to put aside worry and fear as she risked her life to shed light on Afghanistan. She certainly knew the dangers—they were all around her. Broken reels of cassette tapes hung high atop streetlights as a chilling reminder that there is no such thing as "freedom of speech." In fact, freedom itself is a hard concept to come by in a country where there is no music or television under the Taliban. It is for these reasons, Shah spent most of her journey as a documentary journalist undercover, blending in. At one critical point in the journey, Shah and her crew were discovered and arrested. Fortunately, they were lucky and were able to get away. Even after such a close call, they courageously charged on.

Shah’s compelling courage was recently again tested as she reentered Afghanistan as the war was being waged around her. She was concerned about how the war against the Taliban might have affected the people she had met in ‘Beneath the Veil’. Her ‘Unholy War’ was filmed in October. In this documentary she returns to the village in which she had previously met children whose father had been taken prisoner by the Taliban and whose mother had been shot before their eyes. Surprised that the war and drought had not encouraged this family to move where many others had fled, Shah began to discover just how hard it will be to rebuild Afghanistan. The father had returned to his home and did not want to leave the house that he had built from mud and river water. Concerns about the Northern Alliance taking over areas of Afghanistan compelled this family to protect their own home. Other concerns about the future of Afghanistan troubled Shah as she learned that many Afghans have known a world of nothing but war. Many men have become independent fighters who earn a living by waging a battle. Creating stability in this country is going to be quite difficult.

The incredible bravery displayed by Saira Shah was only a mere reflection of the bravery of the Afghan people. The burqa, or blue garb that completely covers women from head to toe and across their faces may conceal their physical features, but it does little to conceal their resilience, their integrity, or their hope for a better day. To many Americans, this fight is new. To most Afghans, this fight is anything but new. But to individuals like Saira Shah this fight must be exposed. Here’s what she had to say about her experience "beneath the veil:"