Today, her work is a reminder of what’s at stake and the unwavering resilience of her subjects.
Here, in her own words, is her story.
My grandparents left Afghanistan during the Soviet War, when my parents were kids, and migrated to Iran.
Hossaini says this image represents the marriage of tradition and modernity. “In the past few years of the republic, so many women [got] tattoos,” she says, adding that the woman pictured here also has her nails and makeup done. “I want to cut [through] the cliché expectations that Afghan women don’t know about [those things]."
I was born in Tehran, [the capital], and grew up there.
Since high school, I was always looking to understand what it means to be an Afghan.
I was carrying the name of Afghanistan within myself, but I had never been there.
“When I traveled to Afghanistan for the first time in 2013, I had to be with a man to take a taxi,” says Hossaini, who notes that had changed in more recent years. “I decided to invite this woman to sit in the taxi. She wanted to experience the freedom."
I didn’t know where Afghanistan was.
I was challenged by my identity.
“I decided to invite this woman to sit in the taxi.
Though most of the textile shops that line Chicken Street, a popular shopping district in Kabul, are run by men, Hossaini sought to capture the femininity of the handmade fabrics. “She’s drinking tea as a symbol of Afghan hospitality,” says Hossaini. “Everywhere you go in Kabul — shops included — you are [offered] Afghan green tea."
She wanted to experience the freedom.”
They wanted to victimize the women of Afghanistan; to show them in burkas.
But when I moved to Afghanistan myself, I could see that the new generation was so different.
This photograph of a woman with a bike on Chicken Street was one of the last images Hossaini captured before she was forced to flee Kabul.
So I decided to tell the story of the women of Afghanistan.
I invited different women to stand in front of my camera.
I cannot say that everything was perfect then, but at least we had a part of democracy.
Women could experience the freedom to go out in the streets.
We had a space in the economy and politics andthe arts, every part of society.
“She’s drinking tea as a symbol of Afghan hospitality,” says Hossaini.
“Everywhere you go in Kabul shops included you are [offered] Afghan green tea.”
On August 15 of last year, the Taliban took over Kabul.
The main victims, as it always happens, are women.
They [largely] banned women from going back to school, going back to work.
They imposed very crazy outfits.
It’s very heartbreaking to see that within weeks, we lost everything.
I wasforced to leave my homeand my Afghanistan.
Being born out of the country, I could never imagine how war can be, how panic-inducing.
When I reached the airport, it was crazy because of all the people there.
Your future and life could change within hours.
Getting out depended on which country had troops that could take you.
In the end, French troops recognized me, as the ambassador was there.
They took me to a French shelter and now I’m in Paris.
But then I thought about the concepts of my work beauty, femininity, and hope.
Why did I have to finish the book with black-and-white pictures?
So instead, I decided to work on portraits of Afghan women artists who left Afghanistan for France.
I don’t know why these terrorists have a problem with women.
I do know that they are afraid of women’s power.
Through my work, Im trying to keep the stories of the women of Afghanistan alive.
I think that a photo can change the world.
An image is more powerful than a thousand words.
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