Synopses & Reviews
"We have been forgotten, and we need the right to speak. If no one hears what we say, nothing will change."
In 1997, during the Taliban's repressive rule, award-winning photographer Harriet Logan went to Afghanistan and encountered a group of extraordinary women whose strong characters and dreams for the future made an indelible impression on her. Despite the peril to her life and theirs, she captured their lives in a series of striking photographs. The women risked their safety by speaking to and being photographed by her because they felt that the outside world needed to know what was happening to them. The images of women from 1997 contrast sharply with those from the 1970s, when they were free to dress as they wished, speak up for their rights, and pursue their educations alongside men.
After the Taliban's defeat at the end of 2001, Logan returned to Afghanistan, where she found many of these women again and met others. These courageous and intelligent women shared with her stories of unimaginable sadness and abiding strength through the long years of war and uncertainty. Zargoona, a widow, reveals that she could not afford to treat her cancer because Taliban law prevented women from earning a living. Nahed, a schoolteacher, has vowed never to marry because even her own brothers beat her, Durkhanai, the daughter of a famous television anchor-woman, tells how she experienced the joys of family life and the pain of lost freedom all at once: "We were like birds in a cage. For me, maybe my cage was good -- my home was full of happiness. We love each other here and we are not hungry. But outside it was terrible." Nine-year-old Sanam rejoices that she can carry her doll without being beaten for idolatry. Latifa lost her foot when she stepped on a mine and subsequently left her house only four times during Taliban rule. She begs of women across the world: "Please help us Afghan women. We have just come out of a dark period into the sunshine. Learn from us so that what we have suffered will never happen again."
Logan's photographs reveal the world of these women, from portraits of them at home to the war-torn landscapes of Kabul and its marketplaces newly brimming with beauty products. This stunning journey in text and image will open the reader's eyes to the Afghanistan of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Synopsis
One of Britain's most intrepid young photographers offers a stunning journey, in striking photos and intimate personal stories, into the world of women in Afghanistan.
Synopsis
A stunning journey, in striking photographic images and intimate personal stories, through the world of women in Afghanistan before, during and after the Taliban, with photographs taken by award-winning photographer Harriet Logan. This book seeks to tell the personal stories, through photographs and short anecdotes, of several women in Afghanistan who spent years depersonalised behind their veils. In 1997, Harriet Logan went to Afghanistan and met a phenomenal group of women with strong personalities and great dreams for their lives. Despite the peril to her life and theirs, she photographed them.
From November to December 2001, Logan returned to Afghanistan to find these women again, and to learn how their situation had evolved since the first time she met them, under the repressive rule of the Taliban. In so doing, Harriet also met more outstanding women, and recorded the womens' existing doubts and enduring hopes for a better future.
About the Author
Harriet Logan is one of Britain's most intrepid photographers. Well known for tackling tough stories, she has photographed diverse subjects, including AIDS victims, prostitutes around the world, and emergency rooms and trauma units. Her work has appeared world-wide in the London Sunday Times Magazine, Fortune, Marie Claire, and Elle. Logan won the two premier U.K. awards for Young Photographer of the Year, the Ian Parry and David Hodge Awards, as well as a special award for magazine photographer at the 1999 Picture Editors' Awards and the 2000 Vic Odden Award from the Royal Photographic Society. Logan's photographs have been exhibited in Perpignan, France; London; Los Angeles; and other cities around the world. A member of Network Photographers since1994, she lives in London with her husband, Andy, and her two children, Jackson and Freddie.