A snapshot that might have been captured at any festive gathering depicts three young ladies in elegant attire, standing together in a cozy living space adorned with balloons and festive decorations. Their long, chestnut tresses cascade beyond their waists, suggesting a bond that could be friendship or sisterhood. However, their averted gazes from the lens hint at a reason for their anonymity and a profound message behind their unveiled locks. These young women reside in Kabul, under the scrutinizing gaze of the Taliban, who reclaimed control of Afghanistan in 2021 following the abrupt withdrawal of American forces.

Initially promising to respect women's rights, the Taliban has since nearly vanished women from public view, relegating them to the privacy of their homes, even for celebrations such as the one depicted. This image, captured earlier this year by Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Kiana Hayeri, is part of a larger collection of works spanning six months, illustrating the lives of Afghan women as the Taliban progressively stripped them of their fundamental rights, including mandatory veiling in public, silencing their voices, and barring them from secondary education, much of the workforce, and numerous social settings.

Collaborating with French researcher Mélissa Cornet, Hayeri and Cornet's joint report, "No Woman's Land," received support from the Carmignac Photojournalism Award and is currently on display in Paris, featuring a blend of photographs, videos, and collaborative art pieces with Afghan girls. The duo ventured across seven provinces and engaged with over a hundred women during the first half of the year for their report. They first met in Kabul in 2018 and have both intermittently resided in Afghanistan for several years.

Hayeri was present during the tumultuous US military withdrawal, while Cornet returned shortly after. "The fears evolved week by week," Hayeri recounted, starting with her own safety amidst the shock of the nation's collapse. "As we witnessed the changes in everyday life and the unfolding of events, the fear shifted to what would become of society and, more specifically, Afghan women." The pair aspired to present a multifaceted perspective on the lives of Afghan women, explaining in a video interview that "No Woman's Land" aims to offer a more extended, in-depth examination of the "intangible losses" suffered by a generation of women who have lost faith in the future, as Cornet described.

The consequences, as their work reveals, have been intricate. "Without downplaying the severity of the situation... there are many layers," Cornet elaborated. "It's an incredibly diverse country. Traveling from the south to the north, the center, to the west, one encounters entirely different realities." Despite Afghan society being "profoundly" patriarchal, which allows the Taliban to delegate control over women to the men in their families, the urban-rural divide can be stark.

Many women, they explained, never experienced the advancements in equality made in urban areas over the past two decades. Cornet noted that the Taliban's governance is not uniform, with some factions turning a blind eye to clandestine schools that continue to educate girls beyond the sixth grade, which they documented as part of their series.

The ideological tensions within the Taliban extend to the highest levels, according to a recent report by The New York Times, with the notorious militant and current acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani allegedly advocating privately for young women's education in opposition to the decisions of the hardline head of state, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada. Over the six-month period, Hayeri and Cornet repeatedly photographed the teenage girls from the birthday party portrait, as well as their extended network of friends.

They encountered them in their homes and at other private events for festivities such as birthdays and weddings. "In this particular instance, it was a 16-year-old's birthday celebration for one of the girls," Cornet shared. "She's not in the photo, but she wore a striking black and gold dress that her mother had crafted for her." Although music and dancing in public have been prohibited, the girls at the party played music from their phones on a large speaker and danced together, posing for images that they posted to their social media profiles. They have observed some of the girls continuing to share images of themselves without hair coverings, risking each time they do so.

In their project, Hayeri and Cornet consistently returned to small beauty rituals often taken for granted, such as the girls braiding each other's hair or applying makeup or henna, in an environment where these acts have become laden with significance. "For Afghan women, resistance cannot mean taking to the streets to protest or speaking out," Hayeri stated. Instead, resistance is "simply existing, because the Taliban is attempting to erase them from public life and...strip them of their identities."

While the duo documented many challenging aspects of Afghan society, from mothers struggling to feed their children to families grappling with the suicides of girls removed from school, they also sought out "pockets of joy," Hayeri mentioned. "It's crucial to consider joy as a form of resistance. Melissa and I have been fixated on this—when there is no hope, no light at the end of the tunnel, how do you continue living your life?"