Afghanistan : In the shadow of the white flags

Recipient of a 2024 Françoise Demulder Grant

On August 15, 2021, following the withdrawal of the United States, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, twenty years after they had been driven out. As soon as they returned, a veil of darkness fell over the country. The media were silenced, girls were excluded from secondary education and music was banned. Women were once again ordered to cover themselves from head to toe: in cities, the veils of long black abayas float alongside electric blue burqas. Excluded from most workplaces and social venues, women have been erased from the public domain and confined to their homes. This exclusion is all the more painful for women in the cities who were encouraged by the West to become emancipated and see the world differently.
As a theocracy was gradually established, I tried to document women’s tragic daily lives: their confinement, but also their resilience. I wanted to paint the portrait of a subjugated society which is trying to adapt and resist against increasingly repressive laws.

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Sonia Niazaï, a presenter at the private television station Tolo News, adjusts her veil between two news programs. Women are now obliged to cover their faces when they go out, and when they appear on screen. The government has ordered men to enforce this rule within their households or face sanctions. Kabul, May 26, 2022.

17-year-old Fahima revises in the family living room. She is taking an online course that she can access via her smartphone. Kabul, January 24, 2025.

A traditional restaurant in the Shahr-e Naw district in the center of Kabul. Women are not allowed to sit in the main room. Men can only bring daughters who have not yet reached puberty. Kabul, April 12, 2025.

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