Anthony Hyman Memorial Lecture
The Anthony Hyman Memorial Lecture brings together scholars, opinion formers and policy makers with an interest in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia to reflect on issues of topical and regional interest. The lecture has been an annual event at SOAS since 2003 organised by SOAS Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus with a reception sponsored by the journal, Central Asian Survey.
About Anthony Hyman
Anthony Hyman was an expert on Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Central Asia, and a commentator for the BBC World Service for more than twenty years. Anthony was also a linguist, historian, bibliophile, art lover and traveller, and associate editor of the journal Central Asian Survey. You can read his full bio on the SOAS’s Anthony Hyman Memorial Lecture page.
After his death in December 1999, at the request of his friends, SOAS agreed to set up an annual lecture in his memory to encourage discussion and debate about Afghanistan and its neighbours, and this has since become an important event in the School’s annual calendar.
About the Lecture Series
Previous speakers have included M. Masoom Stanekzai (former Minister of Communication, Government of Afghanistan), Nancy Hatch Dupree and Jonathan Steele (Author/ International affairs columnist).
The AHML 2025 lecture, ‘Controlling women, controlling society: The politics of virtue in Afghanistan‘ took place on 27th March 2025. The speaker was Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights Afghanistan who spoke about key elements of the current human rights crisis in Afghanistan under the Taliban Mark II.
- 2025: Controlling women, controlling society: The politics of virtue in Afghanistan‘ Speaker: Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights Afghanistan
- 2024: The Taliban back in power: Taking stock of the Islamic Emirate Speaker: Kate Clark, Senior Analyst for the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN)
- 2023: The struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan
Speaker: Shaharzad Akbar, a human rights activist from Afghanistan - 2022: The Refugee Crisis and Afghanistan
Speaker: Matthieu Aikins, from New York Times Magazine, and the author of The Naked Don’t Fear the Water: An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees - 2021: Afghan State-building in the Era of Counterterrorism
Speaker: Dipali Mukhopadhyay, an associate professor in the global policy area at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota - 2020: Hearts & Minds: Afghanistan’s Contested Culture
Speaker: Jolyon Leslie is an architect who has lived and worked in Afghanistan since 1989. - 2019: Connecting citizens with the state?
Speaker: Dr Orzala Ashraf Nemat (Director of Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) - 2018: The Place of Music in Afghanistan Today
Speaker: Professor John Baily (Afghanistan Music Unit) at the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia & the Caucasus, SOAS University of London