Afghanistan, Promises Written on The Ice, Left In The Sun

From October 3 to 30

Kiana Hayeri

“Last year, I spent several months chronicling the fast changes across Afghanistan as we approached the 20th anniversary of the US invasion. This selection focuses on Afghan women, the same women who were put in the center of war efforts shortly after Americans invaded Afghanistan. Today, many of these women feel that they have been abandoned and left behind. While I have covered the frontline and the dramatic events of war in the last 8 years, living in Afghanistan, I stayed behind when I could, to capture a different and alternative narrative of America’s longest war. The consequence of a single narrative is that it robs people of dignity and smears our recognition of equal compassion. Afghanistan is a place of extremes, the best and worst of humanity live side by side. Fear and courage, despair and hope, life and death coexist. I’ve captured stories of women that found murdering their husbands as their only way out of domestic violence and abuse. Now they have found peace in a prison. Stories of girls from some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan who walk everyday for hours to go to school, come rain or shine. Stories of mothers mourning the loss of their teenage daughters who were brutally killed as they left their school in western Kabul. Finally, the story of Hafiza, whose four sons took different paths in life as they joined opposing sides of the conflict. She carries an open wound on her throat that doctors believe is caused by grief. Last summer, all of us watched in disbelief as 20 years of progress in freedom of expression, women’s rights and education, was wiped in 20 days as the country rapidly fell into the hands of Taliban. Today all those are replaced with more restrictions, fear and uncertainty in Afghanistan, a country with open wounds that is struggling to heal.” Kiara Hayeri

This exhibition was created in association with Nikon: