A glimpse of life for women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule

A few months ago, photojournalist Kiana Hayeri and researcher Mélissa Cornet travelled to the Mawoud Academy school in Kabul. It was a heavy journey – Hayeri had previously visited the school under heartbreaking circumstances. “I first reported on it for the New York Times after it was attacked by a suicide bomber in October 2022,” Hayeri says. “Then they were attacked one more time and we did a crowdfunder, so I was very involved with the school.”

The majority of its students are women and from the minority Hazara community, who have been facing increased persecution and violence as the Taliban have tightened their grip in Afghanistan. Despite the challenges, the pair found a rebuilt and thriving school and were greeted with warmth when they arrived. “All these new students knew about my presence,” she continues. “And they brought a cake – personally it touched me, it really moved me.”

It was a rare instance of joy for Hayeri and Cornet, within a landscape where such moments are becoming harder to come by. The pair were travelling around Afghanistan as part of a six-month journey to report on the changing situation for women in the country since the Taliban had taken control in 2021. Now, their project NO WOMAN’S LAND has been awarded the 14th Carmignac Photojournalism Award, with the project to be exhibited at the Réfectoire des Cordelieres in Paris from October 25 until November 18.

Both Hayeri and Cornet have been living and working in Afghanistan for several years. Cornet first travelled to the country in 2018 to research women’s rights in the country while Hayeri moved in 2014. When the Taliban seized control of Kabul, and ultimately the whole of the country in August 2021, both Hayeri and Cornet left, before returning in the months after.

While conducting their project, the pair interviewed and photographed over 100 women in seven different provinces. In doing so, they illuminate personal stories of women from across Afghanistan’s diverse society, which is made up of a layered and diverse fabric of experiences. “Afghanistan is massive – it’s very different region by region,” Cornet explains. “One thing that definitely has changed is that the war has come to an end, so there’s no active fighting. For women in some of the rural areas – say, Kandahar or Helmand where they saw heavy fighting over the last decade, they’re much more at peace.”

For others, it’s been a constantly evolving picture, with new decrees restricting their ability to move freely in public without male chaperones. In 2022 the Taliban shut down schools and further education establishments for women above sixth grade. Most recently, at the end of August, a new rule was announced banning women’s bare faces and voices from being heard in public.

“The year after the fall [of Kabul], in a weird way, things were not as bad as we thought they would have been,” Cornet says. “The Taliban were reassuring people that women would have their rights, and in that first year women were working, going back to university, school, and journalists were working pretty freely. It really changed after the two-year anniversary.”

With each new decree, the situation becomes increasingly hopeless and repressing. “By the end of the project, the overwhelming conclusion was that [many women] have absolutely no hope that things are going to improve now unless they leave the country or the Taliban leave,” says Cornet. “We spoke to a therapist and she was explaining how cases she has [seen] of anxiety, OCD and suicidal tendencies have skyrocketed.”

Despite this there are glimpses of small pockets of resilience, resistance and hope within the stories and pictures from NO WOMAN’S LAND. The pair spoke to a group of teenage girls who would find savvy ways to meet up in private, while others are continuing to provide education. “We visited a couple of underground schools,” says Hayeri. “Right now, even if they graduate there’s no university and they can’t hold a job, but these underground schools carve some space for the girls to come out of their homes and keep their minds busy and learn something.”

When Cornet and Hayeri revisited the Mawoud Academy they found a dynamic learning environment, and a beacon for optimism. “Right now, this school has 700 female high school students, they go to school in daylight and they study the American curriculum,” Hayeri explains. “The fundraiser we did with the story years ago connected them with a school in San Diego, which got involved with them and helped create the curriculum.

“It was very joyful to see classes packed, girls were keen, curious – they were like sponges,” she continues. “The plan is that they’ll do the same exams that they do in America and walk away with a diploma, which will open many doors for them – that provides some hope for us.”

NO WOMAN’S LAND by Mélissa Cornet and Kiana Hayeri will be on view at the Réfectoire des Cordelieres in Paris from October 25 until November 18, 2024.

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