Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, women’s rights were completely stripped away. Women were not allowed to pursue their education, all girls’ schools were closed down, women were not allowed to work, and they were ordered to remain in their houses.
Raised in Afghanistan during the Taliban era, Farzana Wahidy was forced to go to school in secret in a small apartment in Kabul. At the age of 11, she helped teach mathematics to 60 other girls.
When the Taliban were defeated, Farzana Wahidy continued her education and enrolled in a program sponsored by AINA Photojournalism Institute, Afghanistan’s first photo agency. This placed her on the road to become a photojournalist for Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
In 2004, Wahidy received a scholarship to attend the photojournalism program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, where she now resides. She is 24.