The 14th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award is dedicated to the condition of women and girls in Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021.
The Award was awarded to the project of the duo composed of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Kiana Hayeri and French researcher Mélissa Cornet, who produced their reportage over a period of six months with the support of the Carmignac Foundation. No Woman’s Land offers an intimate look at the situation of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
From January to June 2024, Kiana and Mélissa traveled through seven provinces of Afghanistan to investigate the living conditions imposed on women and girls by the Taliban, which, according to Amnesty International research, could constitute a possible crime against humanity of gender-based persecution.
They met more than 100 Afghan women, banned from school and locked in their homes, female journalists and activists stubbornly fighting for their rights, mothers horrified to see history repeating itself for their daughters, and members of the LGBTQI+ community. They documented how the Taliban, as part of a deeply patriarchal society, systematically eliminated women from public life by taking away their most basic rights: going to school, university, working, dressing as they wish, frequenting public baths and parks, and even beauty salons. At the end of August 2024, the Taliban regime further tightened its control by issuing a new law requiring women to cover their faces with masks and prohibiting them from making their voices heard in public, including singing, reciting or reading aloud.
The most striking change Kiana and Mélissa have observed since August 2021 is the general loss of hope among women that their situation could improve.
To document this extremely sensitive situation, Kiana and Mélissa used various media, photos, drawings, videos, but also. works of art created in collaboration with Afghan teenage girls.
Exhibition in Paris from October 25 to November 18, 2024 as part of the PhotoSaintGermain festival
Réfectoire des Cordeliers, 5 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine, Paris VI
Monday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Free entrance
Exhibition, outdoors from October 31 to December 18, 2024
Port de Solférino, Paris VII, opposite the Musée d’Orsay, in partnership with the City of Paris
