Under Taliban rule in Afghanistan women were unable to leave their homes and denied education. Manizha Ibrahimkhil's documentary photographs help us to share a day in the life of a female Afghan small business owner after the regime change.

Showing Worker Women's Life in Photography is a series of photographs of a Muslim woman who is working in order to support her family. She has a small shop in a town in western Afghanistan. These photographs were taken on April 1, 2013 to show how powerful women can be when they take action and work for the betterment of women’s lives. Afghanistan is a country where women had no rights a few years back, but now Afghan women are beginning to stand on their own feet and fight for their rights in order to end the violations that occur against them.

 

About the Author

I was born in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 12, 1987. When I was in the 3th standard, the regime changed and the Taliban took control of our country. I was one among the many Afghan girls who were unable to attend school in those times, but I continued my education at home. When my family started a new life after the Taliban regime, I was able to go back to school. I completed high school in 2005 with 99% of marks among 50 students. After that I successfully completed a B.A. with honors in Law and Political Science from Herat University of Afghanistan.

I have received an academic fellowship from AIT (Asian Institute of Technology ) and a scholarship from The University of York's Post Recovery War Studies Department in the UK. I also participated in different legal trainings, internship programs, voluntary jobs, Rule of Law conferences, court case management and statistical system conferences. I speak fluent English, Dari and Pashtu and functional Urdu. I have pursued an interdisciplinary focus throughout my studies. My undergraduate education included courses in economics, geography, history, political studies, religious studies, and English.

Since 2009, I have been working as a women's rights activist in my community. I have participated in different women's rights workshop’s one of them being the Ewha Global Empowerment Program (EGEP) which was held at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea. I was the only Afghan woman selected to represent the women of Afghanistan. During the program I delivered a presentation on life as a woman in Afghanistan to an audience of almost 300 Korean women’s rights activists, university professors and news reporters.  The skills and knowledge I gained from the EGEP Program gave me the courage to work for the betterment of women’s quality of life in Afghanistan.

 

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