The Artists
Sabira Madady
Sabira is an Afghan refugee who currently studies at Arizona State University. She is passionate about photography and documented the daily life of people in Bamyan provinces of Afghanistan in the past few years.
Shamshad Noori
Shamshad Noori is an architect and photographer. He has photographed countless landscapes and historical places in Bamyan in the past several years to show the beauty of Afghanistan.
Aaghil Artist Statement
Aghil is a Hazaragi word that refers to a small community where everyone lives in peace and harmony. For those of you who are not familiar with the word Hazaragi - it is a dialect of Persian/Farsi spoken by the Hazara people in Afghanistan.
Two years ago, I was carrying my camera all around my hometown, the city of Bamyan in central Afghanistan, and taking random pictures of the everyday lives of the people. I never thought of exhibiting or showcasing them. I was also not expecting that our whole society would go backward one day and we would lose the very little freedom that we owned. At the time, my goal was to practice photography and observe my world through the camera lens.
On Aug 15, 2021, Afghanistan fell to the terrorist group Taliban. It changed everything for millions of people across the country. Hundreds were persecuted because of their ethnic and religious identity, professional affiliations, and political opinion, chief among them the Hazara people. Millions lost their jobs, hundreds of thousands were forced to flee their homes and seek safety in neighboring countries, women were wholly erased from society, and schools were banned for secondary-level female students.
Now, I realize that the photos that I took without any purpose became part of my identity as a Hazara girl and as an artist in exile.
My pictures reflect the lives of the Hazaras and how they peacefully co-existed not only as part of the Afghan community, but globally in the aftermath of 9/11, which led to two decades of US-led political and security intervention in Afghanistan. Through this exhibition, I would like to showcase the peaceful life of the Hazaras in Afghanistan and their struggle in the pursuit of liberal and democratic values, which are by and large, neglected by the media. As a Hazara artist in exile, I have realized that common perceptions about Afghanistan are limited to war, conflict, and terrorism. I'd love to challenge that perception through this exhibition.
-Sabira Madady