This story was included in our November 2023 issue, devoted to some of the best writing The Walrus has published. You’ll find the rest of our selections here.
The background details in Ahmet Sel’s 2002 portrait series tell their own stories: a poster on a school wall warning children of potential mines, a flower shop in Kabul named Ittifaq—unity. One of the portrait subjects, Sabara Rahmani, is photographed among the ruins of the Afghan National Gallery, where she was the deputy director at the time. She still works there as a manager. Over the past two decades, she helped resurrect the gallery and even toured exhibits abroad. Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, she and her colleagues have had to hide art that authorities might deem blasphemous, including work by women.
