It Can Never Be the Same

The images depict a country in upheaval, as experienced by a foreign photographer who has spent over a decade navigating its complexities. ‘Afghanistan resists foreign understanding, and its image has been repeatedly appropriated and reshaped by the empires that have occupied it over the centuries. Misunderstandings arise not only from the difficulty of accessing the country’s many layers of meaning but also from a tendency on our part, as journalists, to simplify and misrepresent.

These simplifications help build narratives that justify foreign wars and occupations, often carried out in the name of spreading democratic values and defending women’s rights.’