A woman with academic ties to Victoria who died in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan last week is being remembered for her leading role in fighting for women’s rights and against violence.
Martha Farrell, 55, was in the capital city Kabul, conducting workshops on gender issues, when she was killed by gunfire at a guest house. A total of 14 people died in the attack, with the Taliban claiming responsibility.
Farrell lived in Delhi, India, with her husband, Rajesh Tandon, who received an honorary degree from the University of Victoria in 2008.
Farrell had been associated with Victoria for a number of years, having worked with UVic and Royal Roads University, said Budd Hall, a professor in UVic’s school of public administration. Hall and Tandon co-chair a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization project in community-based research.
Hall said Farrell was an expert in community development and her involvement with UVic came out of her work in that field, which is concerned with training people to work with local groups or local governments.
She helped to develop courses when UVic’s community-development program was getting started, he said. She also worked with UVic students who travelled to India as part of their coursework.
Farrell also helped to develop the global-leadership program at Royal Roads and was set to resume her distance-teaching duties with the university, Hall said.
Victoria was a regular stopping point for Farrell.
“She has been here on and off over the last 10 years many times,” Hall said. “She’s very well known and very much loved and admired as a person here in Victoria.”
Hall said he and his wife, Darlene Clover, became close friends with Farrell, who was last in Victoria in January.
“We’ve known her for 25 years, I guess, maybe more,” he said.
Farrell accomplished a great deal in her life, Hall said.
“We’ve known her from her early days as a literacy worker through more recent years into what she became: a really important figure in the woman’s movement in India and other places.”
Clover said Farrell had many roles.
“She was a strong feminist, an advocate for women’s rights, a trainer. She had recently published her doctoral thesis, which was on gender harassment in the workplace.”
Clover said that Farrell addressed gender and anti-violence issues during her sessions in Afghanistan, where she worked with the Aga Khan Foundation, a non-governmental international development agency.
Hall said Farrell’s death brings home what is happening on the other side of the world.
“It’s a huge loss,” he said.
“It’s important to be able to put a face on what seems kind of anonymous violence to many, as well as just to acknowledge the loss of Martha.”
He said a local celebration of life for Farrell is being planned for mid-September, when Tandon is scheduled to be in Victoria.
