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NARRATIVE 360 is pleased to present an impression of
Afghanistan by four Canadian photojournalists: Roger LeMoyne, Lana
Slezic, Robert Semeniuk and Christopher Grabowski. The images in
Kites, Guns & Dreams focus primarily on civilian life caught in
the crossfire, in both the literary and the political
sense.
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul,
2002
A boy plays in the ruins of the King’s
palace.
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Robert Semeniuk, Kabul,
1996 |
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Robert Semeniuk,
Waziristan, 1987
In a small village in Waziristan, close to the
Pakistan–Afghanistan border, all the older boys and men went away to
fight. The women remained hidden inside walled compounds. These
young boys were the only males around, tending the local
“market.” |
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul,
2002
A boy kisses a velvet pole erected as part of a New Year's
Day celebration. Kissing the pole is believed to bring good
luck. |
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Lana Slezic, Badakshan, 2004
A village on the country’s northeastern
frontier.
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul,
2002
A bird vendor outside the Blue Mosque. |
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul, 2002
A few months after the Taliban
was expelled from Kabul, a vendor displayed a doll at the
market. |
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Lana Slezic, Kabul,
2004
At the Red Cross orthopedic centre. |
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Christopher Grabowski, Jabal Seraj,
2003
In an interview for the local radio station, Nazifa, who was
injured by a land mine, talked about her constant pain, her fear
that she will become a burden to her family, and her wish that she
had died in the blast that took her legs. Her account of the tragedy
registered only briefly in the expressions of her classmates. Unable
to hide their excitement, the girls surrounding her quickly reverted
to subdued chatter and giggling. |
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Robert Semeniuk, Kabul, 1996
At the
orthopedic centre of Wazir Hospital, nine-year-old Wazir Hammond
rests against a wall of sandbags that protect the hospital against
rockets, shelling and bombs. He requires a prosthesis refitting
every six months. More than a hundred people, most of them
civilians, are killed and maimed every month by land mines in
Afghanistan. |
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Robert Semeniuk, Kabul, 1996
A
land-mine awareness sign on a road near Wazir Hospital. A land mine
is ten times more likely to kill a civilian after the conflict than
a combatant during it. Afghanistan has established one of the
world's most extensive de-mining and mine-risk education programs.
It employs more than 5,000 de-miners and educators. On September 11,
2002, Afghanistan joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, known as the
Ottawa Treaty. It was one of the first international agreements
endorsed by the post-war government. Despite all of these efforts it
will take decades to de-mine a significant part of the country’s
best agricultural land. |
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Robert Semeniuk, Kabul, 1996
At the
orthopedic centre of Wazir Hospital. |
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Christopher Grabowski,
Kabul, 2003 |
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Roger LeMoyne, 2002
A British
helicopter flies over the Hindu Kush on its way back to Kabul from
the north of the country, after delivering relief supplies to
earthquake victims. |
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Lana Slezic,
Mazar-e-Sharif, 2004 |
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Lana Slezic, Parwan,
2004
Commander Mennan is in charge of rebuilding the Salang
Tunnel, the main route between Kabul and the northern provinces. It
is the world’s highest road tunnel and was destroyed by an avalanche
in 2002. |
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Lana Slezic, Kabul,
2004
The old Kabul Theatre is used as a school for girls despite
the missing roof and the rubble strewn
everywhere. |
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Roger LeMoyne,
Kabul, 2002 |
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul, 2002
Dogfights are held every
Saturday morning in a field on the outskirts of Kabul. The
atmosphere is highly charged and people gamble on the dogs, but the
fights are short and the animals are rarely seriously
injured. |
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul,
2002
Buz Kashi, Afghanistan's version of polo, which is played
with a headless goat carcass, was banned under the Taliban. Now it
is being played again, with the traditional ferocity that often
leaves players bloodied and horses limping. |
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Roger LeMoyne,
Kabul, 2002
Buz Kashi riders. |
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul, 1996
I took this panorama of Kabul
shortly after the Taliban entered the city. The theme of war's
civilian victims seemed to be thrust upon me as I travelled to areas
of conflict. The fate of these civilians was inescapable and
magnetically drew the camera. The geography and hardware of conflict
seemed less real than the suffering it left behind. In the wars of
the last decade, it is non-combatants who have suffered the most
casualties. They get caught in crossfire or they bear the brunt of
bloody ethnic hatred. Increasingly, civilians are used deliberately
as weapons: as cover, bargaining chips or targets of psychological
warfare, or as another resource for soldiers to
exploit.
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul, 1996
Taliban.
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Lana Slezic, Faizabad,
2004
This orphanage in the northern province of Badakshan was
started by a woman named Zahira Rabbani to provide shelter for more
than 300 children. |
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Robert Semeniuk, Herat,
1996
Traditional flatbread is baked in a clay
oven. |
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Christopher Grabowski,
Kabul, 2003
Shakib is one of an estimated 37,000 street-working
children in the Afghan capital, many of whom have lost one or both
parents. They panhandle, work at low-paying menial jobs and scrounge
for basic necessities. |
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Christopher Grabowski,
Kabul, 2003 |
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Christopher Grabowski, Kabul,
2003
Aschiana is a school for street-working children in Kabul.
It has morning and afternoon classes to accommodate the needs of
students. In a science class, the teacher asked girls to balance
cardboard butterflies on their noses to illustrate the laws of
physics. |
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Roger LeMoyne, Kabul, 2002
When
the education system was relaunched under the interim government,
many girls went to school for the first time in their lives.
Although this schoolhouse was completely empty of furniture and
supplies, hundreds of girls showed up to register on the first
day. |
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Christopher Grabowski, Kabul,
2003
The curriculum at Aschiana includes detailed instruction
about land mines and unexploded ordnance. |
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Lana Slezic, Kabul, 2004
Girls attend
classes in the partially destroyed Kabul Theatre building. Tahera
Hakim, an Afghan educator, says, "Even if we don't have the
resources we need, we will find a way to teach the students. If we
have no chairs, no desks, no classrooms, we will teach them under
the trees. The future of our country lies with these girls. Their
education is the future of Afghanistan and some education is better
than none at all." |
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Christopher Grabowski, 2003, Kabul Youth
Center |
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Christopher
Grabowski, Kabul, 2003
The boys from a ruined Kabul neighbourhood
offered to instruct me in the art of kite flying. With our heads
tilted back, we looked in the only direction where the tragic
history of the city couldn’t be seen. It was the end of summer in
2003, and they still waited for opportunities to arrive and for
their streets to return to ordinary
life. |
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Christopher Grabowski,
Kabul, 2003 |
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Christopher Grabowski,
Kabul, 2003 |
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Christopher Grabowski,
Kabul, 2003
As I raised my camera toward the artillery-damaged
mosque at the end of the street, a boy about ten years old flipped
into the frame and kicked up a small cloud of dust. For a moment I
could not understand what was happening. In such a context, a
perfectly natural prank seemed more surreal than the traces of
war. |
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