''The struggle of the Kurdish people and their fight for freedom and fundamental rights have not come to an end, and therefore this book cannot portray all of their journeys, nor shall I stop documenting what is still to come. Yet I believe, as a witness, I owe it to history and to those I have met for sharing some of these images in this book to show part of their journey to freedom and equality''
Maryam Ashrafi
''There’s also another side to war. Those doing the fighting also have to wait, often for many days or weeks, behind the front, before anything happens. Then, later, when the guns fall silent, there’s the strange immobility of the ruins. War is also these moments and these places, away from the noise of battle, where the fighting has stopped, or not yet begun. Before the battles are announced, there is, behind the front, the long wait of those who will have to lead them. Then, once the weapons have been silenced, the silence of the ruins remains. These moments and these places, outside the clash of arms, where one does not fight or not yet, where one does not die or not yet, it‘s also the war. This is the world Maryam Ashrafi has found herself bearing witness to since first travelling to Kurdistan in 2012, an intermediary world, somewhere between life and death, a space that has pervaded the territory since the beginning of the confrontation between the Kurdish forces and Islamic State in 2014. Through the lens of her camera, she tells the story of communities shaped by the continual presence of guns, damaged by war but nevertheless forging a new collective existence. Alongside the Kurdish women soldiers, the photographer thus also tells the story of the transformation of the condition of women that the Kurdish movement has given rise to thanks to the unprecedented situations brought about by the Syrian civil war. ''
Allan Kaval
Photos in the book are supported by texts from Allan Kaval, Journalist for Le Monde Newspaper, Kamran Matin, Associate professor of International Relations at Sussex University, Carol Mann, Sociologist and specialist in gender issues and armed conflicts, associate researcher at the University of Paris 8 and director of the Women in War association, Mylène Sauloy, who has documented the conflict in four different parts of Kurdistan, notably since 1998 in Rojava.
Maryam Ashrafi
Maryam Ashrafi is a social documentary photographer who believes in long-term projects, she chooses to stay behind the front lines and observe the daily lives of combatants, which includes a lot of waiting around. She is above all involved in documenting the everyday life on the Kurdish front. Her work puts a face on a widely commented war which remains, from afar, perceived mainly by the West in terms of the number of refugees.
Maryam Ashrafi documents the war in her own way, stressing its complexities and the actual building of a new social model based on equality where women occupy the same roles as men, which is remarkable in this area of the world. This is why, over the years, she has returned to the same places, from Kobane to Tabqa, to show the unique power of the population's resilience and the will to live and change.
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