Far From Home

Featuring: Sabiha Çimen, Luisa Dörr, Fatimah Hossaini, Diana Markosian, Kristina Varaksina

When the Taliban walked into the capital of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, America’s longest war came to an end. The vacuum left by the exit of U.S. troops forced tens of thousands of Afghans to flee. Some were evacuated by Western nations. Others escaped on foot. Many Afghan women saw their hard-won gains evaporate overnight.

In Far From Home: Afghan Women After the Taliban Takeover, TIME worked with a global team of female journalists and photographers to look at how refugees were attempting to build new lives abroad one year after the fall of Kabul, from the beaches of Florida to the neighborhoods of Rome.

Starting anew has not been easy. The women ache for their homeland and their loved ones, unsure when they will see them again beyond their cell phone screens. At night, they often return to Afghanistan in their dreams. As the Taliban intensify crackdowns, the women who managed to get out mourn the loss of freedoms across their nation. These are women who once were full of optimism for their country. Now, they are free and safe. But they are also far from the homes they love—and the futures they deserve.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Sabiha Cimen is a self-taught photographer, mostly developing self-reflective projects close to home in Istanbul. She is an associate photographer in Magnum Photo Agency. She lives between Istanbul and New York.

Luisa Dörr is a Brazilian photographer whose work is mainly focused on the feminine human landscape. Through the quietness of her storytelling, she uses the portrait as a vehicle to tell narratives, and explore the complexity of human nature and femininity.

Based in Bahia, Brazil, Dörr is currently working on projects related to women and cultural traditions. Parallel to these projects, she photographs for assignments worldwide.

Fatimah Hossaini is an Afghan- Tehran born artist, photographer, curator, exhibitioner based in Paris, France. She is the author and photographer of Beauty Amid War, a book published in French and English.She is the Founder of Mastooraat Organization, a non-profit organization working for women and Art in Afghanistan. Fatimah has worked and advocated on Women and refugee rights on national and international platforms through the United Nations. Her work tells powerful stories of identity and femininity in Afghanistan.

Diana Markosian is at the forefront of a new generation of photographers, pushing the boundaries of documentary storytelling. By encapsulating different styles and mediums, Markosian has created a unique approach to image making. Her first monograph, Santa Barbara was published by Aperture and selected by Time Magazine and MoMa as the top photo book of the year. Her work is represented by Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris and Rose Gallery in Los Angeles. Markosian holds a Masters of Science degree from Columbia University in New York.

Kristina Varaksina was born in Yekaterinburg, Russia. She received her Master’s in Photography from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, in 2013. She currently lives and works in London.

In her personal work, Varaksina explores the vulnerabilities, insecurities and self-search of a woman and an artist. Her work is a creative response to what’s going on in the world and her immediate environment. Through visual symbolism, carefully curated colour palettes and thoughtful lighting she reflects the strongest emotions she and her subjects experience.

Varaksina gives voice to subjects from different ethnic, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds. She sees her job as a photographer to make “ordinary” people more visible and therefore, more valuable. Her aim is to redefine what beauty means in today’s visual world, what we find truly beautiful and how important it is to be unique.

Organizations

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

The Pulitzer Center’s mission is to champion the power of stories to make complex issues relevant and inspire action. Founded in 2006, the Center is an essential source of support for enterprise reporting in the United States and globally. The thousands of journalists and educators in our networks span more than 80 countries, and our work reaches tens of millions of people each year through our news-media partners. The journalism we support covers the world’s biggest challenges today, from the environment and global health to human rights and artificial intelligence.
TIME

TIME is a 100-year-old global media brand that reaches a combined audience of more than 105 million around the world through its iconic magazine and digital platforms. With unparalleled access to the world’s most influential people, the immeasurable trust of consumers and partners globally, and an unrivaled power to convene, TIME’s mission is to tell the essential stories of the people and ideas that shape and improve the world.
Rukhshana Media

Rukhshana Media is a women-led news organization established in November 2020 to cover women’s issues in Afghanistan. Rukhshana Media was named after a young woman, Rukhshana, who was stoned to death by the Taliban in 2015.

Rukhshana Media was born to rectify women’s empty place in Afghanistan’s patriarchal and androcentric news media landscape. Men have often decided what is “newsworthy,” what matters enough to talk about and how to report it. With this background, Rukhshana Media is committed to defining news from the perspective of women and reporting on what matters to women.

Rukhshana Media tells the story of women from across Afghanistan, from their concerns at home and their role and position in society. They publish stories in two languages, Persian and English, covering Afghan women’s issues inside and outside of Afghanistan.