The Victor Weeps: Afghanistan (Hardcover)

~ (Author, Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Poor Afghanistan. A historical crossroads far away from the world's centers of power, the country has alternately been conquered, fought over by one superpower after another, and ignored. In the 1920s, Afghanistan's rulers embarked on a sweeping program of modernization that, among other things, allowed for at least some measure of civil rights for women. A half century later, after the politically moderate king Nadir Shah was overthrown, a Marxist government drew Afghanistan into the Soviet sphere, provoking a civil war that widened with the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979. More than a million Afghanis died; millions of others fled the country to neighboring Iran and Pakistan. The civil war widened further after the exhausted Soviet forces left in 1989. Three years later, the Mujahedin resistance seized power and executed the Marxist dictator Mohammed Najibullah. The civil war continued, fueled by the rise of the conservative Taliban, a confederation of armed students that, at century's end, controls most of the country.

Photographer and journalist Fazal Sheikh traveled to Afghanistan to document the ravages of this long war, recording ruined villages, desolate landscapes, and damaged people. These survivors tell stories of murdered family members (some of whom remained where they fell in battle or massacre for months before at last being buried), of nearly unimaginable terror and hardship, and of hope for a better future; as one refugee, a widow called only Roghul, remarks, "I have been told that my home has been completely destroyed in the civil war, but I still hold on to the hope that there will be a time when I can return to the land where I was born. I will return when the government gives its people jobs rather than Kalashnikovs." Sheikh's searing photographs and oral histories are a terrifying portrayal of the hell of war. --Gregory McNamee

From Library Journal

An enormously talented photographer, Sheikh has turned his camera on the displaced Afghan refugees living in nine villages in northern Pakistan, survivors of two civil wars. The book begins with children's drawings of adults and children being blown up by land mines, setting the tone for the sadness that follows in images and words. Villagers' photographs are shown on facing pages with interviews about their experiences. Elders share the region's history and religious roots; mothers recount the loss of husbands and sons and the struggle to keep their children alive. Sheikh's photographs are perfectly exposed and printed, their beauty in sharp contrast to their subjects' stories of torture and death. The importance of Sheikh's work is his ability to communicateAto unknowing and indifferent readers in the United States and EuropeAthe profound human losses from a faraway conflict that we know only through brief newspaper and television stories. An important addition to photography, political science, and Afghanistan collections.AKathleen Collins, Bank of America Archives, San Francisco
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Scalo Publishers (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3931141950
• ISBN-13: 978-3931141950
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,525,711 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The tragedy of Afghanistan personalized, November 3, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Boulder, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This is a beautiful book of photographs and text by the 33 year old photographer/author. Tracing a grandfather's origins back to Pakistan, Fazal discovers that the area where his ancestor lived is now an Afghani refugee camp. He meets the people, finds out their stories and travels to the war ravaged capitol to photograph the inconceivable devastation. His specialty is poetic text and portraits done in the clasical,direct, nineteenth century style. One powerful series is done in a extraordinary closeups by gaslight and focuses on the face exclusively. These expressive faces combine with their life histories to form a moving document of the tragedy of Afghanistan. The book closes with a series of portraits of children reminiscent of Walker Evan's best work. Harsh history is revealed in their faces. A beautiful and poetic account of human dignity in war torn Afghanistan.