Afghanistan

The Collection / Conflicts

Afghanistan

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AFGHANISTAN. City of Kabul. 1986. General NAJIB (6th from the left), emerges as the new Secretary General and presides over the ceremonies of the 8th anniversary of the Communist coup. He is surrounded by members of the Politburo and generals. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. City of Kabul. 1992. A Mujahideen from Ahmad Shah MASSOUD fights for control of the capital. A tank belonging to the faction led by General Rashid DOSTOM provides covering fire. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. City of Kabul. 1992. Uzbeck militia led by General Rashid DOSTOM control part of the capital. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. City of Kabul. 1992. A Kalashnikov and a mullah's turban. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. 1992. Ahmed Shah MASSOUD, the "Lion of Panshir," was assassinated on September 9, 2001. | License

AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. Pol-e-Keshti Mosque. Friday prayer. 1992.

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AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. Pol-e-Keshti Mosque. Friday prayer. 1992.

AFGHANISTAN. Herat. Men perform Friday prayer in the Great Blue Mosque.

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AFGHANISTAN. Herat. 2005. Men perform Friday prayer in the Great Blue Mosque.

AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. The crop. 1992.

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AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. The crop. 1992.

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AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. 2001. A woman in a burqah, the full Islamic veil, has come to pay her respects to the dead at the Shi'ite shrine of Sakhi Jan. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. 1992. A wedding by proxy: the woman's fiancé, who migrated to Germany, is present only in the photograph. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. City of Kabul. 2001. A guardian of the National Gallery exhibits a painting of two naked women which was taken off its frame by the Taliban to be locked off in a gallery's room.

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AFGHANISTAN. City of Kabul. 2001. The bazaar among the ruins of the capital, partially destroyed by infighting among mujahiddin factions from 1992 to 1996 when the Taliban took over. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. Tarakhil. 2005. Classes are held in the open due to a lack of space in a village school donated by Japan. The ground had to be demined first. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. Near Kabul. 1992. A Mujahid of the Hezbi-Islami (Islamic party led by Gulbuddin HEKMATYAR) guards the road to the capital. | License

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AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. 2005. An American GI on a dawn patrol over the hill housing the Nader Shah tomb overlooking the capital. | License

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        In 1986, Lenin is at war with Mohammad. Rather than covering the mujahiddin, I travel in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan: extremist mullahs having turned my country, Iran, into a fanatical Islamic republic, I have no reason to join the western press in glorifying Islamists as freedom fighters. Getting off the plane in Kabul, is like entering the Iran of fifty years ago. Few days pass and I feel I am back in the Iran of three hundred years ago.

        In the Kabul of December 2001, I am tempted to think I have entered the Iran of five hundred years ago. Afghanistan has hastened to move backward in history during the rule of the Mujahiddin and the Taliban: the State has just dissolved. I live the utopia of a country gone back to its tribal days.

        When burkahs are lifted, when full beards are shaved off, faces reveal total despair.

        Conflicts

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