14 Building on the LTWs, Legislative Theaters Performances (LTPs) were held. The issues that had earned greater salience during the LTWs were reflected in the LTPs. The LTPs inaugurated the program to the wider public. 60 to 100 individual’s attended each LTP. The LTPs had four scenes; each scene reflecting a set of specific problems. In the first scene, the principle role player was typically a father/brother/husband dealing with his daughters, sisters or wife. In the second scene, a mullah would address women’s rights issues in the setting of a sermon, or settling a family dispute. The third scene typically featured a young boy or a man in an official posting harassing girl either on the streets, in an office or during a business transaction. The fourth scene often depicted a scenario where an under-age or forced marriage case was unfolding or controversies over excessive dowries were taking place. The order, scale and scope of the scenes were changing, according to each community’s issues during each LTW.3 Firstly, AHRDO-trained theatrical actors enacted the performance on stage. Following the conclusion of the play, a trained moderator led and directed the discussions by the participants on each specific play scene and the problems it proffered. Secondly, after what were often intensive and sometimes controversial discussions on the controversial topics of the performance, the participants were asked to volunteer for an on stage performance. After experiencing the performance in various roles, they were asked to share how they felt in the position of a husband disapproving of his wife going to work, a brother preventing his sister from going to school, a mullah declaring a woman’s role outside the family as antiSharia law and a girl being harassed on the streets. This created a perfect environment for quite intimate discussions on what men were doing to women in different structural settings. The performances were often quite quickly changing, and in many cases quite radically changing, men’s positions on women’s standing in each societal setting. The number of performances and the extent of turnout in these performances were significant. The application of theatrical methodologies, unprecedented as they were in local communities, attracted more participants. Overall, more than 3900 individuals benefited from the performances across the five regions: 606 in Mazar, 756 in Herat, 1076 in Kabul and 782 in Nangarhar and 682 in Bamyan.4 To collect more context-specific details about how men with a designated association with distinct socio-cultural structures influence women’s life at the grassroots level, 21 focus group discussions were conducted.5 Each focus group had five participants, one person from each of the following categories; family, religious establishment, public sphere and culture and traditions. These categories exercise determinative influence on women’s public role. The individuals included family elders, (the patriarchs), mullahs, civil society, government 3. AHRDO, Theatre of Performance, Field Report: Bamyan, Herat, Kabul, Mazar and Nangarhar, 2013-14. 4. Ibid. 5. AHRDO, Activities Report: Bamyan, Herat, Kabul, Mazar and Nangarhar, July 2013 – May 2014.