An Attempt to Erase Women
As part of Photo Saint Germain, Kiana Hayeri’s exhibition “No Woman's Land” focuses on the lives of Afghan women, systematically stripped of human rights under Taliban rule since 2021.
The latest Carmignac Photojournalism Award went to photojournalist Kiana Hayeri and researcher Mélissa Cornet, who traveled for six months in seven Afghan provinces, speaking to over 100 women facing gender-based persecution.
Recently deported out of Pakistan, an Afghan family has temporarily settled in the suburban neighborhood of Jalal Abad in eastern Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forced out of Pakistan following the crackdown on illegal foreigners, and women and girls are the most affected by the consequences of forced displacement, which involves high rates of child marriage. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac
A group of teenage girls dance at a birthday party of their friend. Music and dancing have been forbidden by the Taliban but women continue to dance and celebrate in the privacy of their homes and behind closed doors. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac
Kheshroo's daughter and her cousin, both grade 11 students who were put out of school, committed suicide a year before this photograph was taken, by throwing themselves in the water. The family plays in puddles of water in front of the Wakhan mountains, in a region that had never been controlled by the Taliban before 2021. Badakhshan, Afghanistan. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac
The photographs and accounts of activists, mothers, and LGBTQI+ individuals, reveal the systematic intention of the Taliban to erase women from society, and their courage to react to a level of abuse hard to even conceive.
In the absence of school buildings in Gardi Ghos District, classes are set up for students, between two main roads under the sun and on dirt ground. As of today, girls are only allowed to study until grade 6. In some districts, only until grade 3. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac
Female journalists working in the office of a women-focused media in Kabul, Afghanistan. In the three months following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared. More than 80% of women journalists stopped working, and without women reporters it is increasingly difficult to report on the situation of Afghan women, in a society where men are rarely allowed to interview them. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac
Girls play in the snow in western Kabul, Afghanistan, behind an apartment block, off the main road. Since the takeover, women and girls' rights to move without a male chaperon or to go to parks have been curtailed, and they have few opportunities to find joy in their daily lives. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac
The exhibition “No Woman's Land” is on view at Réfectoire des Cordeliers in Paris as part of the festival Photo Saint Germain, until November 23rd.
