Afghan Women - Photo Gallery - National Geographic Magazine

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Veiled Rebellion

Afghan women suffer under the constraints of tribalism, poverty, and war. Now they are starting to fight for a just life.

/2010/12/afghan-women/img/01-burkas-pray-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-01.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario In Labor on the Road I saw two women on the side of the mountain, in burkas and without a man. In Afghanistan you seldom see an unaccompanied woman. Noor Nisa, about 18, was pregnant; her water had just broken. Her husband, whose first wife had died during childbirth, was determined to get Noor Nisa to the hospital in Faizabad, a four-hour drive from their village in Badakhshan Province. His borrowed car broke down, so he went to find another vehicle. I ended up taking Noor Nisa, her mother, and her husband to the hospital, where she delivered a baby girl. My interpreter, who is a doctor, and I were on a mission to photograph maternal health and mortality issues, only to find the entire story waiting for us along a dusty Afghan road.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/02-burka-stadium-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-02.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Unafraid to Rally My first time in Afghanistan, the Taliban ruled the country. The only women on the street were beggars—usually widows or wives of disabled men. On many Fridays the Taliban performed public executions at the sports stadium in Kabul. Ten years later, at a rally for a presidential candidate in the same stadium, women participated—some in burkas, some not. In this picture, the women who did not want to be photographed covered their faces.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/03-shahzada-qasim-shrine-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-03.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Praying With Tears In Herat the shrine to Shahzada Qasim, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, is more than a thousand years old. One day of each week a section is partitioned so women can come to worship. Cordoned off to create a sanctuary for women, these prayer sections seem to me like some of the safest, most intimate places in the country. The women at the shrine in Herat are enveloped in chadors that cover them from head to foot, influenced by the style favored in neighboring Iran. In this shrine and in shrines throughout Afghanistan, some of the women weep uncontrollably. I always wonder why they are crying. Perhaps because of the deeply emotional nature of public prayer and the holiness of the place?]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/04-emerald-bride-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-04.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario An Emerald Bride It's very delicate to photograph an Afghan wedding. The women are unveiled and often wear revealing dresses and heavy makeup. They are reluctant to share these images with the outside world. At this Kabul wedding the bride is Fershta, 18. She wears a green dress for the ceremony—a color associated with prosperity and paradise in Islamic tradition. The groom is Amin Shaheen, son of film director Salim Shaheen. The sober expression on his wife's face reflects the fact that marriage is an enormous milestone in an Afghan woman's life, not just a celebratory event.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/05-nose-cut-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-05.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Scarred for Life Bibi Aisha was 19 when I met her in Kabul's Women for Afghan Women shelter in November 2009. Her husband beat her from the day she was married, at age 12. When he beat her so badly she thought she might die, she escaped to seek a neighbor's help. To punish her for leaving without permission, her husband, who is a Taliban fighter, took her to a remote spot in the mountains. Several men held her while he cut off her nose, ears, and hair. She screamed—to no avail. "If I had the power, I would kill them all," she told me. I wanted to be strong for Aisha to give her hope she would be fine again. But when she described that moment, I began to cry. Aisha arrived in the U.S. in August for extensive reconstructive surgery.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/06-female-dj-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-06.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/07-fixing-mother-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-07.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/08-new-mother-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-08.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario A Fortunate New Mother After traveling in remote areas where most women give birth at home, without even a midwife, I was relieved to visit the hospital in Faizabad, a provincial capital. The hospital's women doctors, nurses, and midwives work around the clock. These Afghan women, who trained both in Russia and Kabul, have the skills and equipment to deal with complications in childbirth, even though they barely have enough funds for rubber gloves and gowns. I photographed Kokogol, 25, delivering twins, with her mother by her side.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/09-health-class-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-09.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario A Teacher's Trek All village women are invited to come to health and hygiene classes taught by a traveling midwife—wearing a white hijab and glasses in this photograph. She works for a mobile clinic sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund and the international medical relief group Merlin, which brings pre- and postnatal care to women in isolated villages like this one in northeastern Badakhshan Province. She travels with a male nurse, who gives routine checkups to the kids.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/10-mother-outreach-clinic-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-10.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/11-police-training-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-11.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Training Day for Policewomen Afghan policewomen handle AMD-65 rifles at a dusty firing range outside Kabul. They are trained by carabinieri, Italian military police from the local NATO troops. Joining the police force is a bold decision for an Afghan woman. Insurgents often attack the police. Very few women get permission to sign up from their husband and male relatives. Of 100,000 officers, only about 700 are female. Yet women are welcome recruits. They can take on tasks that men cannot because of Islamic custom: frisking other women, searching homes where female family members are present. Many who take the job are widows of fallen officers cast in the role of breadwinner. The pay is about $165 a month.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/12-olympic-training-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-12.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Dreaming of Olympic Glory These young Afghan women are part of a team that will compete at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, where women's boxing will debut as an official sport. The athletes triumphed just by getting their families to sign on to the idea of their daughters participating in sports. During matches in public venues, the members of the Oxfam-supported team, now competing in South Asia, cover their hair with hijab worn beneath their head guards. That's not a problem for the International Boxing Association, as long as the boxer's face is clearly visible. Here, practicing indoors in Kabul, they can go bareheaded.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/13-wedding-guests-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-13.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Dolled-Up Wedding Guests These two girls have been dressed up and made up for a relative's wedding in Kabul. Many Afghan women and girls put on makeup and spend hours at the hair salon for such an occasion. Young girls are able to show off their makeovers. But once a girl arrives at the age of puberty, she masks herself from men with a burka or hijab.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/14-daring-drive-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-14.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Daring to Drive With face, hair, and arms in full view, actress Trena Amiri chauffeurs a friend around Kabul on a Friday. She blasts her favorite songs off a cassette and shimmies and sings along, tapping the steering wheel as she dances in the driver's seat. Even in relatively progressive Kabul, men and women glare, honk, and scream at her. It provokes men in Afghanistan to see strong women. It symbolizes a freedom they just aren't comfortable with. Amiri fled her husband of seven years, who, she says, kept her home and beat her. She left her three sons behind. She doesn't plan to remarry but knows she might have to in order to survive in Afghanistan, where women are dependent on men for so many things. When I ask about her current boyfriend, whose name is on the gold bracelet around her wrist, she says she couldn't marry him: "He won't let me act anymore, and I want to continue my art."]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/15-jailed-wife-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-15.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario The Wails of a Jailed Wife A female inmate at a Mazar-e Sharif prison has just been released, prompting Maida-Khal, 22, to cry out because she is still trapped in her cell. When Maida-Khal was 12, she was married to a man of about 70 who was paralyzed. "I was so young, I couldn't carry him because he was so heavy, so his brothers would beat me," she recalls. When she asked for a divorce four years ago, she was imprisoned. "I am in jail because I don't have a mahram [male guardian]. I can't get a divorce, and I can't leave prison without a man." She says, with remarkable understatement, "I have had a difficult life."]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/16-elderly-opium-addict-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-16.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/17-set-herself-ablaze-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-17.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Setting Herself Ablaze "I took the bottle of petrol and burned myself," Fariba, who is 11 and lives in Herat, told me. "When I returned to school, the kids made fun of me. They said I was ugly." She now says, "I regret my mistake." The reasons for her action are unclear; Fariba claimed a woman came to her in her dreams and told her to burn herself. Many Afghan women burn themselves because they believe suicide is the only escape from an abusive marriage, abusive family members, poverty, or the stress of war. If they do survive, women fear being shamed or punished for what they did and may blame a gas explosion when they were cooking. Doctors know when the burns were intentional from their shape, location, and smell.]]> /2010/12/afghan-women/img/18-saving-patients-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-18.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/19-bread-distribution-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-19.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/20-marine-chat-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-20.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/21-only-female-governor-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-21.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/22-teacher-relaxation-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-22.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario /2010/12/afghan-women/img/23-kabul-graduates-714.jpg /2010/12/afghan-women/img/afghanistan-60-23.jpg Photograph by Lynsey Addario Unusual Graduates Many girls in Afghanistan get no education at all. Even those who do enroll in a school typically study for just four years. So these members of Kabul University's class of 2010 are definitely in the minority. Wearing hijab under their mortarboards and seated in separate rows from their male peers, the women pictured are graduates of the department of language and literature. The Taliban had banned the education of women, but classes resumed after the regime fell in 2001. This graduation was held under tight security at a hotel in Kabul because of an upsurge in terrorist attacks.]]>