Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN | Friday, 5 July 2013 | Views [1992] | View Smaller Image

An Afghan woman stands breastfeeding her child while waiting in line to receive aid from the Missionaries of Charity – better known as the Mother Teresa nuns. The nuns who have lived in Kabul since 2004 help almost 300 Afghan families they have personally visited and found to be in dire need. Afghanistan has no welfare system to support the poor, nor does it have any public acceptance of Christianity in the form of physical churches or similar. The nuns supply the families on a weekly basis with basic food, clothing, and other material needs through funding they receive from the Motherhouse in India.

Tags: afghanistan, kabul, mother, child, burqa

Women wearing the burqa leave the tomb-cum-shrine of Ahmad Shah Massoud in Panjshir, Afghanistan.

Massoud is nicknamed the “Lion of Panjshir” for his role in resisting the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet regime from 1979 to 1989. He is also a figurehead for his opposition to the Islamic extremism of the Taliban regime. Al Qaeda suicide bombers assassinated him September 9, 2001. The date now a national holiday in Afghanistan.
The burqa is a piece of material covering a woman from head to foot, including her face. It was popularised during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan when it was illegal for a woman to be in public without wearing it.

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A young girl wears jeans and fancy shoes in a street in Kabul. Jeans were practically banned by the Taliban regime because of their Western origin while girls were not allowed outside the home. Now, just over a decade later, a girl is publicly wearing jeans in the street with sparkles on her shoes.

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Afghanistan

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