And Women Shall Lead: Lynsey Addario on the New Face of Afghanistan

5 minute read

The first time I visited Aghanistan in May 2000, I was 26 years old, and the country was under Taliban rule. I went there to document Afghan women and landmine victims. At the time, the Taliban had banned photography of any living being, so I snuck around with my cameras in a bag, visited people in their homes in Kabul and the provinces, and claimed I was photographing destroyed buildings left by over two decades of war in the country. There were almost no foreigners in Afghanistan then; electricity was rare, television was banned, and my only contact with the outside world was through BBC dispatches on a short-wave radio and through UN officials based in Kabul.

The Taliban rose to power in 1996, vowing stability and an end to the violence raging across the country between warring mujahedeen factions, and to implement rule by Sharia law, or strict Islamic rule. Despite decades of war, Afghans were the most hospitable people I had ever met. I remember driving through the dusty villages of Logar and Wardak provinces, along narrow streets lined with traditional clay compounds, where word spread quickly that a foreigner was passing through. We stopped by people’s homes unannounced, and within an hour, a lavish meal of whatever the family could muster from the garden appeared before us: freshly whipped butter, carefully picked greens, juicy tomatoes, freshly baked bread, and on the rare occasion, meat. People offered whatever they could, because hospitality was an integral part of the culture. I met brave women who were teaching in secret schools for girls–education for girls over 10 was also banned under the Taliban–in basements and behind heavy curtains in their homes, and interviewed educated, professional Afghan women who were relegated to a life behind closed doors and without work.

By the time the United States went to war with Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, I had made three trips to the country. I covered the fall of the Taliban in Kandahar, and have been returning routinely for the past 14 years.

Last week I traveled to Kabul to photograph the violence surrounding the upcoming presidential elections, and it was the first time in well over a decade that as the plane skimmed the snow-capped mountains surrounding Kabul, my normal exhilaration was replaced by fear. Kabul used to be one of the safer places in the country, but the week before I traveled, the Taliban–who ironically had been responsible for bringing stability to the country less than two decades before—was slaughtering civilians and security forces in the capital. They vowed to disrupt elections with an increase in violence: a Swedish journalist was executed by insurgents in broad daylight in a neighborhood where many foreign journalists and aid workers reside; four gunmen attacked the luxurious Serena hotel on the eve of Nowruz, the Persian new year, killing nine, including AFP journalist Ahmad Sardar, his wife, and two of his three children. All three of Sardar’s children, ages 5, 4, and 2, were shot in the head as their mother pleaded for their lives. Only the two-year-old survived. I landed in Afghanistan in the wake of these brutal, merciless massacres, knowing the goal posts had changed—no one was off limits to the Taliban.

A women's hospital in Kabul, under Taliban rule, 2000.Lynsey Addario

In the subsequent six days I was on assignment, there were three major attacks—two on the Independent Electoral Commission, and one on a guest house for foreign aid workers. Four- and five-hour gun battles between Afghan security forces and the Taliban were becoming commonplace in the heart of the city, forcing foreigners inside their compounds, and creating terror afresh among Afghans.

But Afghans were undeterred by the Taliban’s seemingly endless supply of suicide bombers. Lines of men and women continued to line up at IEC centers to register to cast their votes for a new president on April 5th. Day after day, they braved the Taliban threats to derail elections because they want a say in their country’s future after 35 years of civil war, occupation, and senseless violence.

On March 27, I traveled with presidential candidate Zalmay Rassoul and his running mate, vice-presidential candidate, Habiba Sarabi, to Mazar-e-Sharif for an election rally. Habiba was the first female Afghan governor in the country, in Bamiyan Province, and is the first woman running for vice-president with a chance at winning. I spent some time photographing the crowd and the candidates from the stage, and eventually made my way down to the grounds of the stadium to photograph the hundreds of Afghan women in attendance.

I was shooting when, suddenly, the male supporters in the stadium went wild, waving their arms, cheering and screaming at the podium, which was obstructed by layers of security. I assumed the crowd was cheering for Rassoul. I weaved through the security perimeter on stage to get a better look at the presidential candidate–and to my surprise, the speaker was Habiba. Tens of thousands of Afghan men were cheering for a woman, an Afghan woman, running for the second highest office in the country. And for a moment, I knew the Afghan people had won. The Taliban could force them inside no longer.


Lynsey Addario is a photographer based in London and a frequent contributor to TIME.


Afghan women attend a rally for Presidential candidate Dr. Zalmay Rassoul and Vice President Habiba Sourabi, in a stadium in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014.  There has been a surge in Taliban attacks aimed at derailing elections leading up to voting day in Afghanistan, and the future stability of the country is unclear. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time Magazine)
Afghan women attend a rally for Presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul and Vice President Habiba Sarabi in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan women leave an election rally at a stadium in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014. Lynsey Addario for TIME
Afghans line up to register to vote for Presidential elections at a center run by the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission in Shah Shaheed, Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2014.  There has been a surge in Taliban attacks aimed at derailing elections leading up to voting day in Afghanistan, and the future stability of the country is unclear. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time Magazine)
Afghan men make photo IDs for voter registration at a center run by the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Shah Shaheed, Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan women register to vote for Presidential elections at a center run by the Independent Election Commission in Shah Shaheed, Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
Afghans line up to register to vote for Presidential elections at a center run by the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission in Shah Shaheed, Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2014.  There has been a surge in Taliban attacks aimed at derailing elections leading up to voting day in Afghanistan, and the future stability of the country is unclear. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time Magazine)
Afghan women line up to register to vote for Presidential elections at a center run by the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission in Shah Shaheed, Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan security forces stand guard in front of the bombed-out offices of the Independent Electoral Commission, March 26, 2014, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The office was attacked by Taliban on March 25, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan security forces accompanying Presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul and Vice Presidential candidate Habiba Sarabi ride past Afghan women in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan Presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul and Vice Presidential candidate Habiba Sarabi greet visitors before attending a rally in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan Presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul arrives at a rally with Vice Presidential candidate Habiba Sarabi in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan Presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani holds a rally in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 24, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
Afghans who have been displaced from Kandahar, Oruzgon, and Helmand--provinces in Southern Afghanistan that are infiltrated by Taliban--live in camps in Charai-e-gamber, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2014.  There has been a surge in Taliban attacks against foreigners and installations frequented by westerners  leading up to the elections in Afghanistan, and the future stability of the country is unclear. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time Magazine)
Displaced Afghans from provinces in Southern Afghanistan live in camps in Charai-e-gamber on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, March 25, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
The charred remains of the guest house for Roots of Peace, a U.S.-based aid group working in Afghanistan, the day after the house was attacked by the Taliban, in Kabul,  March 28, 2014.  The Taliban has declared it will try to derail presidential elections, and there has been a surge in Taliban attacks in the days leading up to voting day in Afghanistan. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time
The guest house for Roots of Peace, a U.S.-based aid group working in Afghanistan, was attacked by Taliban in Kabul on March 27, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
Afghan Security forces stand guard on the perimeter of an ongoing attack at the election headquarters in Kabul,  Afghanistan, March 29, 2014.  The Taliban has declared it will try to derail presidential elections, and there has been a surge in Taliban attacks in the days leading up to voting day in Afghanistan. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time Magazine)
Afghan Security forces stand guard on the perimeter of an ongoing attack at the election headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 29, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
Afghan Security forces stand guard outside the guest house for Roots of Peace, a U.S.-based aid group working in Afghanistan, the day after the house was attacked by the Taliban, in Kabul,  March 28, 2014.  The Taliban has declared it will try to derail presidential elections, and there has been a surge in Taliban attacks in the days leading up to voting day in Afghanistan. (Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time
The guest house for Roots of Peace the day after the house was attacked by Taliban in Kabul, March 28, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Afghan women leave a rally for Presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul and Vice Presidential candidate Habiba Sarabi in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014.Lynsey Addario for TIME
Afghan friends, colleagues, and relatives of slain Agence France Press correspondent Sardar Ahmad, 40, and his wife, Humaira and two of their three children hold a vigil in their honor in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 26, 2014. Credit: Lynsey Addario for Time
Friends, colleagues, and relatives hold a vigil in honor of slain Agence France Press correspondent Sardar Ahmad, his wife, and two of their three children in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 26, 2014. Lynsey Addario for TIME
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Friends, colleagues, and relatives hold a vigil in honor of slain Agence France Press correspondent Sardar Ahmad, his wife, and two of their three children who were killed in a Taliban attack at the Serena Hotel on March 20. The vigil took place on a hill overlooking Kabul on March 26, 2014. Sardar's 2-year-old son, is critically wounded.Lynsey Addario for TIME

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