Sarah Chayes

Sarah Chayes
Born	March 5, 1962 (1962-03-05) (age 49) Washington, D.C.
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Journalist; Arghand cooperative
Parents	Abram Chayes Antonia Handler Chayes

Sarah Chayes (b. Washington, D.C., March 5, 1962) is a former reporter for National Public Radio.

Background

Sarah Chayes is the daughter of law professor and Kennedy administration member Abram Chayes and his wife Antonia Handler Chayes. She graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1980, and Harvard University in 1984, with a degree in history. She later served in the Peace Corps in Morocco, returning to Harvard to earn a master's degree in history and Middle Eastern studies, specializing in the medieval Islamic period. She has lived in Kandahar, Afghanistan since 2002, and can speak the Pashto language.

Career

Chayes began her reporting career free-lancing from Paris for The Christian Science Monitor and other outlets. From 1996 to 2002, she served as Paris reporter for National Public Radio, earning 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards (together with other members of the NPR team) for her reporting on the Kosovo War. She has also reported from other nations.

She is the author of The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban (ISBN 1594200963), published in August 2006.

Her eloquent analysis of the current dilemma in Afghanistan, along with a plan for its resolution, is Comprehensive Action Plan for Afghanistan, written in January, 2009.

Chayes wrote an op-ed published in the International Herald Tribune July 10, 2007 arguing that NATO was not to blame for the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. "When things go wrong, it is typical to blame the equipment, or the help. In the case of the unraveling situation in Afghanistan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has become the favorite whipping boy of American officials. In fact, after watching rotation after military rotation cycle through here since late 2001, I see NATO as an improvement over its American predecessors."^[1]

She was a guest on PBS's Bill Moyers Journal February 22, 2008^[2] and December 19, 2008.^[3]

More recent interviews are: Terri Gross on Fresh Air on February 4, 2009, Charlie Rose on May 8, 2009, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC (available on YouTube) on June 29, 2009, Jane Lindholm/Vermont Public Radio on November 16, 2009, and Leonard Lopate of WNYC on April 12, 2010. The Rachel Maddow interview has some very positive comments from Ms. Chayes about the US military presence in Afghanistan.

Organizations

She has lived in Kandahar, Afghanistan since 2002. Having learned to speak the Pashto language, she has helped rebuild homes, set up a dairy cooperative. In May 2005, she established the Arghand Cooperative, a venture that encourages local Afghan farmers to produce flowers, fruits, and herbs instead of opium poppies. The cooperative buys their goods and from them produces soaps and other scented products for export. The cooperative is an associate member of the Natural Perfumers Guild ^[4] She wrote Scents & Sensibility an article detailing the story of the Arghand cooperative and her extreme difficulties with the 'incompetence' of the American aid establishment, which appears in the December 2007 issue of The Atlantic Monthly.^[5]

See also

• Greg Mortenson
• Debbie Rodriguez
• Rory Stewart
• Economic development
• International development

References

1. ^ Chayes, Sarah (10 July 2007). "NATO didn't lose Afghanistan". International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/10/opinion/edchayes.php. Retrieved 20 December 2008. 
2. ^ "Bill Moyers Journal: Sarah Chayes". Public Affairs Television. 15 February 2008. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02222008/profile2.html. Retrieved 20 December 2008. 
3. ^ "Bill Moyers Journal: Sarah Chayes". Public Affairs Television. 19 December 2008. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12192008/profile.html. Retrieved 20 December 2008. 
4. ^ Natural Perfumers Guild [1].
5. ^ Chayes, Sarah (December 2007). "Scents & Sensibility". The Atlantic Monthly. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/afghans. Retrieved 20 December 2008. 

External links

• Comprehensive Plan for Afghanistan; January, 2009
• "Days of Lies and Roses" by Sarah Chayes, from Boston Review, March/April, 2007
• Sarah Chayes, from The Transom Review
• "American Activist Finds Her Calling in Afghan Hot Spot", by Declan Walsh, from the Boston Globe, May 9, 2006
• Arghand Cooperative site
• Sarah Chayes speaking in Washington, DC., September 7, 2006 Woodrow Wilson Center
• Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Inter|Cultures Magazine
• Peace Corps biography of Sarah Chayes news clips
• BookTV page
• Notable Andover alumni page

Listening

• Sarah Chayes interview by Leonard Lopate on WNYC, April 12, 2010
• Sarah Chayes interview by Jane Lindholm, Vermont Public Radio, November 16, 2009
• Sarah Chayes interview by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, June 29, 2009
• Sarah Chayes interview by Charlie Rose, May 8, 2009
• Sarah Chayes interview by Terri Gross on Fresh Air /WHYY/NPR, February 4, 2009
• Sarah Chayes interview on Bill Moyers' Journal, December 19, 2008
• Sarah Chayes interview by Bill Moyers on PBS, February 22, 2008
• Sarah Chayes interview from Democracy Now!, October 10, 2006

Persondata
Name	Chayes, Sarah
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Date of birth	March 5, 1962
Place of birth	Washington, D.C.
Date of death
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