The Female Eye in Focus – Female photojournalists in Afghanistan 2007

The foundation for the AÏNA Media and Culture Center in Afghanistan was already set before the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequential end of the Taliban regime. With foresight and dedication, photographers Reza and Manoocher Degathi (both from Iran and residing in Paris, France) founded AÏNA, with the intention to help to rehabilitate the media in Afghanistan in its broadest sense. The Kabul office opened in December 2001.
After years of war, oppression and the resulting media hostile regime, Afghanistan was lacking a substantial body of trained photojournalists. In response, AÏNA founded a school for photojournalism, AÏNA Photo, in October 2002.
In October 2002, the first photography course, initiated by Manoocher Deghati, started with 25 students, ten women and fifteen men, selected from 400 candidates on the basis of ability, aptitude and aspiration. Within 10 months the students managed to independently produce a vast number of exceptionally high quality examples of photojournalism. An impressive result, keeping in mind that several of the participants had never touched a camera or even had had a photo in their hands before commencing the course.
In the meantime the fourth batch of students, male and female, has finished their photography course and has found employment as a photojournalist working for various institutions like AFP (Agence France-Presse), international organisations (like the UN) and the newly founded AÏNA Photo Agency in Kabul. Apart from this giant step made by the students in a relative short period of time, the most dramatic element is the impact the photography course had and still has for the female participants.
More than 25 years of conflict in Afghanistan, deteriorated in the course of time seriously the position of women, and under Taliban rule culminated in the complete exclusion of women from public life, including the access to education and professional training. Next to this for all Afghans, access to and use of the various media was forbidden. Within two years after the end of the Taliban regime, women started working as photojournalist.
Today, thanks to the investment of AÏNA Media and Culture Center, the media have started to flourish again. But despite these developments, the circumstances for Afghans in general and women in particular, are still far from normalized. A still deteriorating security situation in the country, persistent traditional opinions regarding the position of women, and perceptions on male and female labour, hamper the employment of women as photojournalists.
So, what does it mean to be a female photojournalist in Afghanistan today ? Preparing this photoseries interviews were conducted with eight women, graduates from the AÏNA photojournalism course, to assess their personal background, motivation and work as a photojournalist. Also, three women were portrayed in the photoseries, featuring a day in their life as photojournalist.
Karima Malikzada was among the first students of the photojournalism course in 2003. She works as a photographer and writing journalist for The Kabul Times, the Afghan government newspaper. Freshta Kohestani was as a already child fascinated by photography. When she heard about the first course she applied immediately, although still attending secondary school. Today she is working as staff photographer for UNAMA in Kabul and just received promotion to a managerial position. Mariam Alimi is working as communication assistant for DNNA, an association of Dutch relief organisations in Afghanistan. She followed the photojournalism course last winter 2006-2007 and is determined to become fulltime photojournalist. She is now busy starting up her career in photojournalism.