KATHERINE KIVIAT PHOTOGRAPHY

WOMEN OF COURAGE

 

WOMEN OF COURAGE, formally known as PARWANA, is now available in English 

WOMEN OF COURAGE book project 

Women of Courage shares an intimate look at the inspiring women who are forging a new future in Afghanistan, and playing a crucial role in the changing landscape of this turbulent nation. First- hand stories and experiences are shared in conversations with a wide array of women from a road worker to a presidential candidate to an Olympic sprinter to a school teacher. Mesmerizing photographs accompany unfiltered interviews, giving voice to a culture of women that has been silenced for decades under the oppressive regime of the Taliban. Experience this transformational period through the eyes and words of the Afghan women that are - for the first time in decades - deciding their own future.  

WOMEN OF COURAGE Traveling Exhibit 

This traveling show is currently available for international exhibitions. The show includes 20 - 16 x 20 inch, 4 - 30 x 40 inch color Kodak metallic prints mounted on gator board and 22 - 8x10 interviews mounted on Sintra. Audio of the interviews with each woman are also available upon request. 

5,000 hardcover copies of theAfghan version of WOMEN OF COURAGE, PARWANA, have been printed and distributed throughout Afghanistan (half of them in Dari and half in Pashtu). The books have been donated to girl’s schools, universities, and accelerated learning programs in every province of Afghanistan.  

 

  • intro_parwana
  • Beekeeper's daughter in Bamiyan, Afghanisan
  • Farshta Kohistani, 19 years old photographer for UNAMA, photographing in a Kuchi camp outside of Kabul Afghanistan.
  • General Khatool Mohamed Zai (she refused to give her age), an Afghan Army paratrooper, sitting in her apartment in the Micrion section of Kabul. Even with nearly 20 years of jumping, she sat in this apartment unemployed during the five years of Taliban rule. Photographed in Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Humaira Habib, 22, journalist for radio Sahar in Herat, Afghanistan.
  • Suraya Parlika, Head of the All Afghan Womens' Union at her office in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 10, 2005. Suraya has had her life threatened on several occasions but continues to work for Afghan women's rights with all her energy. In October, 2005 Suraya ran for the Afghan parliamentary elections.
  • Bubany, 10 years old, became blind at six months. Her mother, Mahjan, sitting behind her, has sent Bubany to a school for blind children in Kabul, Afghanistan. She hopes that one day her daughter will be able to work as a teacher for the blind as well. In Kabul, Afghanistan.
  • Farzana Wahidy, 19, Photojournalist for AFP, at her home in Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Marina Gulbahary,14, the young actress who was selected to play a little boy in the film, {quote}OSAMA{quote} after she was seen begging in the street. Marina stands outside her new home in Kabul, Afghanistan which she was only able to buy for her family after she made the film
  • Farzana, 20, breadmaker at a women's bakery in Kabul, Afghanistan. This Bakery was founded by Massouda Jalal, the minister of Women's Affairs.
  • Zahra Mohammdi, 19 years-old, set fire to herself eight months ago when her marriage took a turn for a worse and her husband began beating her after only three months of marriage.   In an act to show her husband she would rather suffer immense pain rather than be with him, Zahra set herself aflame while her husband watched.  Eight months later Zahra is now divorced from her husband and back home living with her mother and father in Herat.  Although self immolation continues to be a large problem in the city of Herat, sources say that the situation is getting better.  According to doctors at the Herat hospital and the Independent Human Rights Comission there have been more than 100 cases of self immolation in Herat alone.  This is an improvement from last year's 300 cases.
  • Fatema Kamazamyan, 28 years old, Head of Women's Affairs in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.  Photographed in front of Buddha niches in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
  • Robina Moqimyar, 17, Olympic Sprinter in the Athens 2004 Olympics stands in the bleachers of the Kabul Olympic Stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  • Parwana Ghezel, a 27 year old Ariana Afghan Airlines flight attendant, stands in the doorway of an ex-American Airlines 727 airplane at Kabul Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Shaima Razayee, 20, VJ for Tolo T.V. , a new private t.v. channel that shows international movies, music videos and fashion shows for the youth in Afghanistan. Shaima was also one of the few women in Afghanistan who dared to walk around outside in western clothing and no headscarf. She was fired recently after the station and Shaima were condemned by conservative Muslim clerics. Investigations are continuing into her death, or possible murder.
  • Mahmooda Hosseini, female Afghan Mullah, teaches children the Koran in her home in the Micrion neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Young Afghan women celebrate at the opening of a new women's center in Assadabad, Afghanistan.
  • Shugoofa Sahar, radio host for a children's program on {quote}Good Morning Afghanistan{quote}. Photographed in the Wazar Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan.
  • Jamila Mujahed, Afghan Anchor Woman, at the Afghan Television and Radio station in Kabul, Afghanistan.  Jamila also works as the Editor for Malalai, a women's magazine in Afghanistan.
  • Suhila Fanoos, 25 years old, Welavate Women's Prison guard standing in front of the Women's prison holding 32 female inmates for crimes such as skipping home and leaving their family responsibilities. Sign above her head reads {quote}Prison of Women{quote}. Photographed in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 19, 2003.
  • Lailama, Afghan Army helicopter pilot, photographed in one of the Afghan Army helicopters at Kabul International Airport.
  • Shazia Saba, Director of D.D.R. Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
  • Freeshta Sadat, 19, deaf and dumb mother of Zubaida (on her lap) in her parents' home in Qargha, Afghanistan. She was rescued by her father from an oppressive and violent marriage. Her husband, a conservative Pashtun from Eastern Afghanistan, once was a driver for the Taliban. After they got married, her husband's family tied her down and tatooed her face with traditional markings when she refused to oblige.
  • Bebe Gul Gholamri, 40 years old, directs traffic around a construction site in the Karte Se neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan. She is one of the four - woman road crew repairing the roads of the Afghan capital. All four women are widows.
  • Naheed Mirza,17, assistant to the Police Commander of the Afghan National Police in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  • Sharhzad Akbar, 17, Kabul University Sociology student, in one of her classrooms at Kabul, University.
  • Huria Hessary, 30 years old, Midwife student at the Bamiyan Community Midwivery Education Program in Bamiyan, Afghanistan
  • Marzia Tamaski (right) and her daughter, saleswoman at the Herat Supermarket in Herat, Afghanistan.
  • Aziza Nazari, 47-year-old police officer in charge of Human Rights, stands in front of a new Kabul police truck donated by the German government in Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Azima Nabi, 38 years old, school teacher and mother of six, sitting in her classroom at the Naswan School Number 13 in West Kabul, Afghanistan.
  • Massouda Jalal, 43, Afghan Presidential candidate in the 2004 Afghanistan elections, stands outside her office in Micrion the neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan. Massouda Jalal was recently given the job as Minister of Afghan Women based in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  •  Zubaida Akbar, 15, highschool student, standing in the ruins of her nieghborhood in Karte Char area of Kabul, Afghanistan Zubaida was recently awarded a high school scholarship to study in Leysin, Switzerland for four years.
  • Hamida,didn't know her age, the Afghan actress who played the grandmother in the film {quote}Osama{quote}. She lives in a refugee camp in the Chaman Hosseiry neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan. Photographed on January 15, 2005.
  • Shaima Aminy, 28, Nurse in the burnt unit of the Herat Hospital in Herat, Afghanistan. Shaima has been working in the burnt unit for 11 years, including during the Taliban rule. She says that the number of women who commit self immolation has increased since the Taliban left because the women in Afghanistan have become more aware of their rights and know that other women are living much better lives. Photographed in the Herat, Afghanistan
  • Miriam Farooq, 21 years old, language teacher, stands in the doorway of her family compound that also houses her classroom. Her husband makes her wear a burka outside the compound only because of what the conservative people in their village would say. They have agreed not to force their 2 year old daughter to wear a burka when she reaches puberty. Photographed in Kabul Afghanistan
  • Jat, Fortune teller in the village of Aqcha in Jawzjan, Afghanistan.
  • haima Rahmany, Afghan Independent Film Maker, in Herat, Afghanistan on March 16, 2005. Shaima is presently making a film about a young Afghan girl who is forced into marriage with a 50 year old man. Photographed on the film set
  • Mahgul, carpet weaver and belt maker. Photographed in her home in Aqcha village, Jawzjan Afghanistan.
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