These are the secret parties of teenage girls in Afghanistan

A photograph of three girls on the back, with long hair down to the waist and in the background, birthday balloons and streamers. For many people, this is a common image. But for the women In Afghanistan it is an act of bravery.

In the Asian country’s capital, Kabul, several young girls agreed to be photographed during one of the secret celebrations they are organizing, ensuring their faces are not exposed. And almost three years ago, the Americans withdrew their troops from the country and the Taliban return to power.

Since then, They tried to “erase” women from public life. They have instituted countless bans that mean the only “safe” place for girls is at home, with the doors closed.

In this contextteenage girls have decided to risk celebrating festivals where they get rid of their veil, also obligatory.

For six months, the Iranian-Canadian journalist Kiana Hayeri in collaboration with the French researcher Melissa Cornet , They visited dozens of Afghan women to show the conditions in which they live with the strong restrictions imposed on them by the Taliban.

As collected cnn Afghan women do not have basic rights: They are forced to wear the veil in public, their voice cannot be heard, they cannot go to secondary school, work several jobs, and even less frequent many social spaces.

The photographs which show This harsh reality is exposed in Paris under the name of The Land of No Women (Land without women)and each tells a different story.

Birthday image shows the courage of teenagers who risk serious consequences just for celebrating the birthday of one of them, who was celebrating her 16th birthday.

And that’s it music and dancing in public are also prohibited.

Then the girls played music from their cell phones on a speaker and They danced without veils or other restrictions. They even took photos with their hair down as a sign of rebellion.

“They found that some girls continue to share images of themselves without covering their hair, taking risks every time they do so,” the article reads. CNN.

As in this case, Journalist Hayeri decided to show the world these small “beauty rituals” which, for example, in the West are considered a normal act. but which, coming from Afghanistan, takes on a completely different meaning.

“For Afghan women, resistance cannot mean taking to the streets, demonstrating and speaking openly” he mentioned to the same media. Resistance “exists, because the Taliban are trying to erase them from public life and strip them of their identity.”

All this is in the hands of the head of state, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The resistance that Hayeri mentions These are the “moments of joy” in a desolate panorama, where mothers struggle daily to be able to feed their children and where suicides of girls who can no longer go to school are increasing.

“It is important to think of joy as a form of resistance (…) When there is no hope, there is absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel, how do you move forward in life?

Journalist Hayeri and researcher Cornet met more than 100 women in the first half of 2024.

And as they got to know each girl, teenager and woman, “week after week the fear was different,” Hayeri said. cnn. “As we watched things change and events unfold every day, the fear focused on what would happen to Afghan society and women. »

This is why with your report and your photographs, They want to show the world the “intangible losses” that Afghan women suffer from the power of the Taliban. . And many women have “lost hope in the future”.

In fact, one detail of the research they did is that there are women, e.g. in rural areas, who live in much more patriarchal environments than others.

“Without minimizing the seriousness of the situation… There are several levels. It is a very heterogeneous country. So if you go south, north, central, west, you see completely different realities,” Cornet added.