The bigger picture

Swiss-Afghan photographer Zalmai Ahad presents a panoramic view of Afghanistan and its issues

Imagine running away from your motherland. Imagine waking up one morning to the reality that you belong to no country. Imagine going to bed every night for more than a decade wondering where and what you belong to. Imagine being a refugee. Just imagine.

That’s the story of Zalmai Ahad, an internationally-recognised photographer, who had to leave Afghanistan at the age of 15, following the former USSR’s invasion and finally became a citizen of Switzerland in 1994.

“That was undoubtedly the most difficult period of my life,” Ahad says in an interview to Tabloid. Ahad is in Dubai to display his photographs in an exhibition that runs until March 1.

Though his parents thought their family would survive the occupation, they changed their minds when the Soviets started to forcibly recruit young boys for their army.

“I was a bit tall for my age at that time, so I remember hiding in the strangest places. Finally my father decided that it was best for my brother and me to leave the country so we walked eight days till we crossed the border into Pakistan,” he recalls.

The two boys walked mostly at night in order to avoid the constant air-patrolling by Soviet helicopters. “They would fire at anything that moved,” he says as he opens a packet of sweet-smelling Dutch tobacco and begins to roll a cigarette.

That was the beginning of Ahad’s life as a refugee. “For three months there was no contact with my family back in Afghanistan and even later we would have to write to an aunt in France under a girl’s name, who would then resend them to the family back home.”

Identity crisis

The severe identity crisis Ahad faced as an adolescent seems incomparable to the turmoil that teenagers of today go through, but he does not exhibit any signs of self-pity.

“There were many moments when I would wonder what the future would hold, when would I see my family again. While travelling, instead of a passport we just had a bunch of official documents.

"Just the whole experience of suddenly being displaced without warning and not speak your language or have your culture to go back home to was depressing and frightening.”

Not only did Ahad have to cope with asserting himself as an individual but the constant worry for his country’s future also continued to plague his mind and affect his status as a citizen in the world.

This uncertainty continued until 1994 when he became a naturalised Swiss citizen. “My identity today is one of a Swiss national of Afghan origin, who can relate to everyone,” he says.

However, to Ahad’s credit, he continued to work on a hobby he discovered at the age of 12, throughout the period of instability.

He studied photography at an academic level and for the past 15 years has been a freelance photographer with works published in the New York Times, Time magazine and a number of respected European publications.

When the UNHCR presented him with the opportunity to return to Afghanistan just before the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Ahad had no second thoughts.

With the UN agency’s assistance he travelled all over his country of origin. “I hadn’t done this even while living there as a child,” he says.

During this period, Ahad photographed his people as he knew them and that’s what he said made his photographs extra special.

“I know there are many others who have taken photos, but their view is very limited,” he says.

The similar background and ability to speak Farsi helped him break through immediately and his easy understanding of the culture gave him a fish-eye’s lens view of Afghanistan and its issues.

“Just, for example, when we were going through the country during this period there were about 400 people from the media and almost all of them were focused on the plight of women under the Taliban.

"I felt like the only voice screaming that the men and children were also suppressed and suffered under that regime. There is more to Afghanistan than women’s rights,” he says.

Though he is in a position to reflect and look back upon his works with pride today, he admits that there were a lot of apprehensions from his side especially regarding what his people would think of him.

“I was afraid they would see me as a traitor for running away, but they’re very proud of me today,” he says.

Ahad’s photographs are all in colour and this was a conscious deviation for a man, who traditionally takes pictures in black and white. “I saw a desperate need to bring out the colour, the hope and the dreams of this country that has seen nothing but war and conflict in the last century,” he says.

Looking back at Afghanistan’s history, Ahad can’t understand why this country has endured so much.

“The British, the Russians, the Taliban, the Americans. I don’t know. At the end of the day the people just want to live. It’s such a poor country with nothing but mountains and the people just want to lead a normal life, but it’s always been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons,” he says.

True enough, Afghanistan has almost always been in the limelight, however it also vanishes from the front pages with equal speed and this worries Ahad.

“The international community must not let go now. They made the same mistake soon after the collapse of communism and the Soviets left us and that’s what made Afghanistan the right place for the growth of the Taliban,” he says.

Now that all eyes are on Iraq and the Middle East, Ahad is concerned that Afghanistan could end up becoming a fertile ground for other problems.

“The focus must not be shifted. The removal of the Taliban was the best thing that happened to the country as the people finally have the chance to go back to how life was.”

Cultural roots

Describing his people as a proud race, who enjoy music and are fiercely loyal to their cultural roots, Ahad says that removing a regime is not enough and that Afghanistan required both financial and humanitarian help from various agencies at this juncture.

“The ground reality is that Afghanistan is a ground zero today where everything has to be started from the beginning. The people, especially the older generation, want schools for their children and grandchildren. That is what they need - education.

“They also need support from everywhere. Only one-third of the promised financial aid has reached them. If a farmer has many children and can’t afford to feed them he is going to resort to growing poppy,” he says, warning of a potential drug problem waiting to explode unless the international agencies take appropriate measures immediately.

“Afghanistan could end up like Colombia.”

Ahad shadowed Afghan President Hamid Karzai on his recent campaign tour and believes that Karzai is the best person for Afghanistan at the moment. “He is a good diplomat, but like I keep saying, the country needs help,” he says.

He dismisses the alternative view that the Afghan elections were manipulated. “I’ve heard that whole puppet-theory thing, but I saw first-hand how popular Karzai was and how the people ran out to support him.

"If there was a difference of a few percentage points then perhaps it would be a bit sceptical, but