Afghanistan, back from these meet-
ings with her translator, Dr. Zeba,
“we saw these two women in burkas
on the side of the road, and right away
when we realized there was some-
thing amiss because women are always
accompanied by a man, and those two
women were not. They were just on
the side of the road in the middle of
the mountains.”
Addario and her translator stopped
the car. “We jumped out and asked,
‘what's going on? Is there something
wrong?’ It turned out the woman on
the right, Noor Nisa, was in labor,” says
Addario. The reason they were alone
was because the pregnant woman’s
husband’s car had broken down. The
husband, whose first wife had died in
childbirth and was determined not to
lose his second wife, had gone off to
find help.
“So I asked,” says Addario, “why
don't I just take them to a hospital?”
But Addario said that the women
needed permission from the hus-
band. “So, I turned to Dr. Zeba and
I said, ‘Go find the husband.’” Luck-
ily, Addario says, Dr. Zeba found
the husband almost immediately.
(Essentially, there’s only one road in
the whole province.) “I gave them all
a ride to the hospital,” says Addario,
where Noor Nisa safely delivered a
baby girl.
Although there’s a happy ending to
this story, when many people hear it,
they often ask Addario if she captured
photos of her delivery.
“I did not,” she says, “because actu-
ally, I knew that I had really changed
the story with my presence and that
they probably would not have made it
to the hospital had I not taken them.”
However, when she thinks back on
what transpired, she says, “But I could
have. I could have taken pictures and
put it in the caption that I'm the one
who took her to the hospital. So it was
just a personal decision.”
For me, Addario’s image may tell
a story of one woman in a specific
time and place, but it resonates on a
global scale.
“I've always been interested in
telling stories about women,” says
Addario, “and not only the injustices
but also celebrating strong women.And so I think it was sort of natu-
ral for me to focus on women where
I had more access.” For example, in
Afghanistan under the Taliban, dur-
ing her first assignments, being a
female allowed her access to women
in situations that were inaccessible to
her male colleagues. “Afghanistan,
especially under the Taliban,” saysAddario, “was very segregated—
male, female—and men who are
not blood relatives couldn't actually
get into family homes or go into thewomen's hospital. So I realized that
my gender as a woman was an asset
and that I could focus on these wom-
en's stories.”
But she had a personal interest as
well: “I grew up with three sisters, my
mother and a gay father.” So, Addario
says, early on her family supported
and embraced strong women.“I also sort of fall in love with the people
I photograph. I think that in these
relationships, they have opened themselves
up, and I open myself up....”
24 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com