Hashem Shakeri – “Staring into the Abyss”

Iranian photographer Hashem Shakeri has been visiting Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power in August 2021. A selection of Hashem’s images made on these trips is featured in the exhibition Staring into the Abyss. Curator Julia Carver interviewed Hashem about the project upon the announcement that the exhibition will be extended to April 2025. 

Julia Carver (JC): You were in Afghanistan when the Taliban took control in 2021. How did you come to be in Afghanistan at that time? 

Hashem Shakeri (HS): When Kabul fell, I was in the Sistan and Baluchestan province, a border region between Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, where I had been living for seven years. I entered Afghanistan after I heard that a few foreign journalists had been able to enter, I decided to go. The shared cultural roots and the experience of living under a fundamentalist and ideological rule, made everything feel familiar to me.  

JC: Your portraits are nearly always accompanied by an account from the subjects. This gives agency to them. How did you meet the sitters in your portraits? 

HS: Yes, exactly, I always strive to make the voices of those who might not have been heard much “visible” in my stories, retaining their agency and identity.

As a male photographer the reality is that photographing women in Afghanistan was very difficult and challenging. I often entered homes where I didn’t take a single frame, but through these conversations and interactions, not only did my understanding of Afghan society deepen, but my circle of friends expanded, making photography easier for me over time.

JC: The exhibition has many acts of resistance. This is more prescient since the recent ban on women speaking in public.  

HS: I repeatedly came across individuals whose lives were drastically altered by the regime change, yet they continue to resist in any way they can. 

A group of volunteers held secret reading and writing sessions for girls. Many of these girls had been traumatized or injured due to bombings in their schools before the Taliban’s arrival. The goal was to allow the girls to tell their stories using their own voices. 

JC: There are poignant images of men in this project. These are a counter to the Taliban idea of masculinity as dominant and all-powerful, as are the men who organise underground schools for girls. It underlines the danger that seems to be present everywhere there.  

HS: I intentionally tried to photograph men because I felt their lives had also been deeply affected. The Taliban has imposed restrictions on men as well, from prohibiting shaving beards and limiting sports activities, and, most importantly, restricting interactions with the opposite sex. 

A country with all its freedoms will never truly be free as long as its women are not free. If men in a society come to realize this, they will understand that the costs of suppressing women will ultimately come back to harm men. 

JC: How did you manage as a foreign photographer? Were you photographing undercover? 

HS: It was much easier to operate in the early days of my work in the region as a foreign photographer, because the Taliban needed international recognition. That said, from the very beginning, I was harassed by the Taliban intelligence and interrogated. On a few occasions, I was even attacked. 

JC: In images of the Bamiyan Buddhas, you draw out the prejudice against the Hazaras in Afghanistan. Can you discuss? 

HS: The Hazaras have had neither power nor a voice that could be recognized in the many governments in Afghanistan. Pashtuns and other groups have occupied parts of Hazara lands, mostly in the central regions of Afghanistan. Hazaras have also been victims of the massacres by the Taliban and al-Qaeda. 

Throughout history, Shiite Hazaras have been forced to abandon their Shiite faith and follow Sunni Islam. Even during the Republic era, when the U.S. military was stationed in Afghanistan, the Taliban frequently targeted Hazara civil movements with bombings. 

JC: You also tackle the tension between Iranians and Afghan refugees. Can you talk about that? 

HS: With the rise of far-right movements in Iran, we are witnessing the most horrific wave of anti-Afghan sentiment.  

Afghans who have entered Iran legally are not even granted the most basic citizens’ rights. Many Afghan children born in Iran cannot even attend school or university here.  

Furthermore, the new Iranian government has promised to deport more than 2 million Afghan migrants back to Afghanistan by the end of this year. Among them are civil activists and former military personnel from the Republic era, whose lives are in grave danger if they are returned.  

JC: You have also photographed and interviewed Taliban fighters. How did you approach them, what was it like to meet them? They seem open to being photographed, were there any who refused? 

HS: It was important for me that my narrative wouldn’t be one-sided. Many of the Taliban fighters themselves are victims of this system. Many of them, according to their own accounts, fought simply for the sake of God and separated from the group after the Taliban came to power. Some of them realised the corruption in the system after the first year and withdrew, while others opposed the restrictions on women but were afraid to speak out and others had a completely extremist view with brutal harshness. 

Once, I photographed two groups who had bumped into each other. The one from the south agreed to let me photograph them, while the group from the north refused. In the end, these two groups got into a severe confrontation because of me, and they even drew weapons on each other. At that moment, I thought the best thing to do was to run away. 

JC: In images such as the zoo visit, you note that the fighters have never encountered this kind of cultural experience before. Does this give you hope that some of them may change? 

HS: The very incident I described previously, where two groups of Taliban fighters clashed over me, happened exactly in this zoo. For many of them, it was their first time in such urban spaces, and it was truly astonishing for them. 

What I do know, is that over time many of these fighters, when they witnessed the corruption in the system, distanced themselves from the Islamic Emirate. 

With the arrival of the Taliban, many children, instead of going to school, are being sent to religious schools, where they are raised with Taliban ideology. For me, this is worrying.  

I truly hope the situation for the people of Afghanistan, especially women, changes soon. The freedom of our countries in the region depends on each other’s freedom. As long as no one is free, it means no one is truly free. 

In the end, with hope for freedom in a region where our liberation is bound to one another, the echo of Mahmoud Darwish’s verse has resonated through the free spirits worn down by the battles of life across this land: “We too love life—when we have the chance to live it.

You can visit Bristol Photo Festival: Hashem Shakeri – Staring into the Abyss at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery from until Sunday 20 April 2025.