Although I have spent my entire professional life traveling from one conflict zone to another, over the past year, for this project, I have focused exclusively on the men and women whose lives have been crushed by the war in Afghanistan, a country I have been visiting for over a decade.

I have not been allowed to work in my home country of Iran for the past four years, ever since the elections in 2009, which were turbulent. Afghanistan is an equally turbulent alternative to being back home in Tehran. In my role working for the Getty Images news service, the people of Afghanistan have been my main subject in the four years that I have spent living amongst them. They have become part of my memories, both good and bad, and their happiness and sadness have become my main concern.

For the past century, Afghanistan has been involved in various wars and conflicts, due to internal politics, religion, or because other powers have sought to conquer these lands. The remains of Russian tanks are still in the streets, mountains and valleys. After the war with the USSR, the Communists seized power; this was when conservative Muslims started to get organized, and eventually gained power themselves. Later, they, in turn, became another cause of strife, this time in the civil war between Al Qaeda and the country’s civilians. After September 11, the world noticed what was going on in Afghanistan, and the dynamics of the civil war began to change once more. This time the Afghan people faced a new war as foreign countries squared off against al-Qaeda.

We have seen countless images of Afghanistan, particularly of soldiers and aid workers throughout the country, but these images do not portray the real Afghanistan of my experience. The real Afghanistan may be an image of a humble child looking at my camera without a smile. If you are a photojournalist in Afghanistan, you would get used to seeing these faces. For me, the real Afghanistan would be the smile on the faces of those same children when they take pictures with my camera, or, in contrast, the despairing women who have set themselves on fire, or images of victims of land mines.

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I have never been able to find out how much the traumatic passage of life has hurt these people as they have always remained impassive in front of my camera. I am very interested to discover the reaction of viewers seeing my images. The main question I have had over these years is: what is the result of all these wars? Every time I see a young Afghan boy or girl in the streets, as unhappy as children in European countries are happy, the question echoes in my head.

War is not the only thing happening in Afghanistan. There is the influence of Persian and Mughal culture in traditional Afghan architecture and decorative garments. There is a paradox between the tranquility of Eastern culture and the violence of war.

I wonder what the characters I have photographed might think about the people viewing the images and the world they come from. Imagine that you were born in Afghanistan. How would you look at the world or the countries which have only ever existed for you through their armed forces and weaponry? It strikes me sometimes that we may have a mysterious and deep connection; we may not see one another, but we speak empathetically, talking about a generation crying out, the tears of children with no hope, the violence and silence of a nation. Throughout the lonely, difficult days of war, I have kept telling myself that I am a photojournalist, in the streets of Afghanistan, with the responsibility of exploring certain realities.

Twelve years ago, when President George W. Bush declared that Afghanistan would be the battlefield on which terrorism would be extinguished, no one imagined that the war would still be continuing so many years later, that the world would still be incapable of suppressing the extremist Islamist group and ideology.

This war is neither the first nor the last in Afghanistan; the country’s history of wars with the West extends over half a millennium, going back to the British and Afghan forces in Helmand in 1388; and Helmand is still in the news today.

I was a photographer in Iran for many years, and also covered turbulent neighboring countries. In 2009, the turbulence came home to Iran in protests following the presidential elections. I was arrested and jailed for taking photos of events on the streets. After my release, I accepted an offer from my agency, and went to Afghanistan where I have been for more than four years, reaping a harvest of bittersweet memories. Sharing a common tongue, I found that I could live alongside the Afghans, understanding them, laughing and crying with them.

This may not be a widespread view, but from my experience, I believe that the withdrawal of foreign troops will make Afghanistan a much safer country. When that happens, all these people whose lives I have been documenting over the past decade will then be able to start rebuilding their lives.

Majid Saeedi

Majid Saeedi

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