Photographer Valentina Sinis’ portrayal of Afghan girls: ‘They all wanted to tell their story’  | International

A gaggle of ladies attend a secret stitching class in Bamyan, the identical metropolis the place, in 2001, the Taliban blew up two monumental Buddhas carved into rock. Meanwhile, in a clandestine workshop in Kabul, a younger lady teaches one other methods to apply make-up. And, within the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital in Afghanistan — one of many few areas the place girls can work after the Taliban’s return to energy in August of 2021 — a health care provider washes her fingers.

All of those photographs are a part of a challenge entitled Were Afghan Women to Unveil Their Tales, by Italian photographer Valentina Sinis. She was the second finalist for the 2025 Luis Valtueña International Humanitarian Photography Award, which is offered by Doctors of the World.

“I have always worked with women’s stories,” she explains. “And, after the Taliban took power [in 2021], news from within [the country] was scarce; we knew that women were disappearing from public life, but not how they were actually living,” Sinis explains, in an interview with EL PAÍS on the Ortega-Marañón Foundation, in Madrid, the place her images — together with these of the 2025 winner, Samuel Nacar, in addition to the opposite two finalists, Jehad Al-Sharafi and Santi Palacios — can be on show till February 28.

Sinis is a part of a area that’s nonetheless closely male. Female participation within the 2025 award elevated barely (4% greater than in 2024), though girls represented solely 36% of the 680 photographers who submitted 6,130 images in whole.

Without the assist of any media outlet or establishment, Sinis traveled to the Asian nation in late 2024. What she discovered had been girls who needed to talk out, not solely as a type of revolt, however out of the basic want for the world to know that they existed. “What impressed me most was that they all wanted to tell their stories, that they wanted someone to bear witness. And, above all, [they wanted] it to be understood that the most devastating thing isn’t just not being able to work, but [also] not being able to study,” the photographer explains.

In March of 2022, the Taliban banned women from attending secondary faculty. By the tip of the 12 months, that they had additionally prevented girls from accessing college. “For many,” Sinis opines, “if their right to education were restored, the rest of the restrictions would almost be secondary.”

They needed it to be understood that essentially the most devastating factor isn’t not having the ability to work, however reasonably not having the ability to research

In her images, there are not any battles, no explosions, no mutilated our bodies. There are courtyards, halls, fingers stitching, the gazes of ladies supporting one another and smiling. “I’m not looking for sensationalism,” she explains. “It’s easy to take war photos. It’s harder to show the inner pain, what happens when your future is taken away.”

Hope is without doubt one of the few weapons that Afghan girls have left. “In the privacy of their homes, there isn’t much they can do,” the Italian photojournalist notes. However, she provides, “there are women who secretly teach other women makeup [techniques] and sewing. And, in a way, they’re all fighters, because they go [beyond] what they’re allowed to do.”

“That fight,” she continues, “is mental; it’s a struggle to create a space for themselves where they can feel alive again… [one] that gives them a purpose to get up every morning.” Most confessed to Sinis that they’re “very depressed.” Because, even when they research and prepare themselves, “there are no job opportunities for them.”

Being Trapped

One of the scenes that affected her most doesn’t seem in any of the pictures. It occurred within the condo of a younger lady, who’s married to a Taliban member. “It was a modern home, like any [middle-class] apartment: a fully equipped kitchen, a huge television, a comfortable sofa. She spoke English; she told me that she had learned online. She said she was happy, that her life was perfect, that her future daughter wouldn’t need anything more than that: a good husband, a house, children.”

While they had been speaking, the husband was banging on the wall from the subsequent room. He known as out to her time and again. She would go, come again and hold speaking. “It was [very] uncomfortable. She didn’t want me to take pictures, just to interview her. And, even then, I felt like every word was being watched.” As they had been leaving, the husband insisted on giving Sinis and her translator a journey, however they pretended they needed to buy groceries. “Then, we saw him circling around [in his car], looking for us. We hid in the taxi… it was very stressful. I wondered if she had been completely brainwashed, or if she was talking like that out of fear,” Sinis sighs.

In distinction, girls who dwell exterior the Taliban circle categorical one other type of anguish: one having to do with mindless confinement. “Most are supported by their husbands or fathers. Many men want the women to work, because the economic situation is very bad. But they’re afraid and fear that they’ll be arrested, interrogated… that something will happen to them. So, sometimes they forbid [the women] from going out, or they accompany them. Not for control, but [to offer] protection. However, the result is the same: they’re locked up.”

In this context, Sinis acknowledges that establishing a relationship of belief isn’t straightforward. But the networks woven by Afghan girls opened a door for her. “At first, I had a fixer (a guide and translator), but he was a man. [He was] inexperienced and many problems arose. Then, I started to move around on my own. At the market, I met an activist lawyer. Later, other women. At a crafts fair, I connected with more. A baker introduced me to others. Little by little, with the help of a translator, I created my own network,” the photographer remembers. She approached her work with one fundamental premise: “I was always clear that my safety wasn’t the most important thing: rather, the fundamental thing was not to put them in danger.”

One of the stereotypes that Sinis disabused herself of on her journey is the concept that Kabul is “a city without women.”

“It’s not what you might imagine from the outside. Not all of them wear a burka. Many wear an abaya, or a hijab. And, in some cafes, you see women together… even some couples,” she describes, clarifying: “This doesn’t mean normality at all, because it’s a fragile, monitored and limited normality.”

This isn’t the primary time that Sinis has lined the tales of ladies dwelling in excessive and invisible contexts. For years, she has documented feminine suicide in Iraq, the place many ladies set themselves on fireplace as a last act of despair within the face of a patriarchal society that oppresses them. She has additionally labored with Yazidi feminine survivors of the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS). And, in Sierra Leone, she has photographed girls and youngsters making cleaning soap who’ve by chance ingested caustic soda, after mistaking it for water, sugar, or salt. This causes extreme burns to the esophagus and digestive system.

If an Afghan lady may communicate freely to the world right now, Sinis believes that she would ask for one factor above all: “The right to study, which was unjustly taken from them. And the support of the international community to get it back.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get extra English-language information protection from EL PAÍS USA Edition