Picturing Afghanistan
Two photography exhibitions, one in Afghanistan’s Kunduz Province and the other in Toronto, Canada, are displaying images that reflect the complex beauty of Afghan society.
“Today's Afghanistan in Pictures,” the first photo exhibition organized in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, was exhibited at the German-Afghan Media-Tech Center. The Media-Tech Center has been working to support media and technology education in northern Afghanistan over the previous four years.
Nearly 150 photographs were submitted by seventeen photojournalists from Kunduz, Baghlan, Takhar and Kabul provinces. Media-Tech Center head Abdullah Rasuli said 11 judges, including professional photojournalists, declared Samiullah Ayubi, of Sada-i-Azadi Radio in Kunduz, as first prize winner.
Almost 7,000 miles away at the Toronto opening of "Voices on the Rise: Afghan Women Making the News," co-curators and journalists Jane McElhone and Khorshied Samad unveiled 44 photographs of Afghan women journalists, politicians and human rights activists. Samad expressed the need for a more balanced picture of Afghanistan than is often reflected in the media. "They're focused on the negative stories, the easy headlines," he said.
The exhibit includes photographs of prominent Afghan radio journalist Zakia Zaki, who was tragically murdered this Spring. Three years ago, Zaki started Peace Radio, one of the first independent radio stations in the country.
“Voices on the Rise” will hang in Toronto Public Library's City Hall Branch until the end of August.
