The Salisbury Forum opens its 2010 – 2011th season with “Conflict and Peace – Why Should Women Be at the Table?” The first forum will be held on Friday, September 24 at 7:30 pm, at The Salisbury School, Seifert Theater. The featured speaker is Maryam Elahi, Human Rights lawyer and Director of the International Women’s Program, Open Society Institute & Soros Foundations Network. Ms. Elahi is the chair of the International Human Rights Committee of the American Bar Association and has served on numerous boards including the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, the ACLU of CT and AI’s Policy Board. She has written and lectured on wide-range of human rights issues including women’s rights, U.S. and human rights foreign policy, “U.S. and the war on terror” and Middle East issues. Prior to OSI, Ms. Elahi was the founding director of the Human Rights Program at Trinity College – the first undergraduate college human rights program in the United States. She taught courses on international human rights law at Trinity, as well as, at the Oxford University Summer International Human Rights Program. She served as the Advocacy Director on the Middle East, North Africa and Europe for Amnesty International in DC from 1990 – 1997. During her ten years at Trinity, she traveled extensively to set up international programs with a human rights focus resulting in the establishment of programs in Cape Town, Santiago, Trinidad and Hong Kong. At Salisbury Forums experts provide their insight, followed by a question and answer period. All forums are free to the public.