Hello Globies!<\/p>\n
June 1st is our next meeting. A timely and interesting topic; Afghanistan.
\n We will NOT have a July meeting due to all of our summer travel plans
\n and the July 4th holiday. Hope to see you June 1st.<\/p>\n
See below for a glimpse into Jason's adventure in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Travels in Afghanistan August 2000 and August 2001 by Jason Florio When
\n I journeyed to the Taliban controlled region of Afghanistan in August
\n 2000 it was by default. I was on my way to Kashmir when I got a call to
\n join a journalist colleague who said, “This [Afghanistan] is where
\n it is happening”. In August 2001 my Afghan journey to the North eastern
\n region was fuelled by a need to complete a picture of a divided country.
\n The North eastern area of the country under the control of the Northern
\n Alliance (who opposed the Taliban,) was a Shangri-la compared to the Taliban
\n held region where I constantly felt a great sense of general and personal
\n paranoia (I was arrested by the Taliban Vice and Virtue police for taking
\n pictures of a football match, and then being accused of spying by their
\n military). I wanted to experience Afghan life without the confines of
\n the extreme Deoband form of Islam practiced by the Taliban.<\/p>\n
My first attempt to cross into the Northern Alliance region (2001) from
\n Pakistan by horseback, disguised as an Afghan woman in a head to toe burqa
\n failed. After subsequent weeks of waiting. I finally made it in after
\n landing a flight on an Russian made Northern Alliance helicopter crossing
\n from Tajikistan into the Panjshir valley, the lair of the legendary “Lion
\n of the Panjshir”, Commander Massoud. This idyllic valley is the gateway
\n to the north, and who ever controls it controls the region. Being allowed
\n to roam freely and shoot photographs without the constant monitoring of
\n the Taliban was liberating. Working closely with the Afghan Ministry of
\n Foreign affairs, I was granted permission to photograph on the front line
\n at Bagram as well as deep in the Panjshir valley where multi-national
\n Taliban POW's were held. In addition, I also photographed girls'
\n schools (non-existent in Taliban territory) and fighters en route to the
\n front line.<\/p>\n
While waiting for the Massoud interview I was promised by the Ministry
\n upon my arrival, I headed deep into the mountains with five Kalashnikov
\n carrying mujahideen fighters to find the Kuchi nomads. After twenty-two
\n years of fighting in the country, their life style had changed very little.
\n They were still camel-riding transients who showed they were virtually
\n immune to the effects of the war by crossing through the frontline without
\n hindrance from either side. The Kuchi we encountered greeted us with open
\n arms, until one of them thought I was trying to photograph his wife. We
\n were then asked politely to leave in the form of a group of young nomads
\n palming rocks at us. Before heading to the sandy wastelands of the northwest
\n and eventually onto our UN flight back to Islamabad, we finally were granted
\n audience with Massoud, “The Lion of the Panjshir” met us in
\n his fortified bunker office and gave us forty -five minutes to interview
\n and photograph him.<\/p>\n
Within a week of returning to NYC on Sept the 5th, commander Massound
\n would be assassinated by Al Qaeda operatives posing as journalist, and
\n the attacks in the US would indelibly link the US and Afghanistan, finally
\n giving the Afghan “Silent Majority” a world voice.<\/p>\n
New York meetings are held
\n at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington
\n St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday
\n of each month. Meetings start promptly at 4:00pm and end at 5:30pm. $10.00
\n for non-members, $8.00 for members.<\/p>\n
Hello Globies! June 1st is our next meeting. A timely and interesting topic; Afghanistan. We will NOT have a July meeting due to all of our summer travel plans and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-main-article","tag-may-2002"],"yoast_head":"\n