Sitting on a mattress as a guest I realized that I had made a huge mistake. You can take an Afghan family away from Afghanistan but you can never take the culture nor the religion away. I had underestimated the power of the culture when I was sitting on a hard floor next to my photographer.
We had become guests and as the father of the family was away, the "uncle" had arrived to speak with us, to tell his views about Afghanistan. Needless to say I didn't get the interview nor the pictures I was after.
The women of the family became transparent, a young girl of 14 was the interpreter when I asked something too sentisive from her "uncle". The Pakistani man introduced himself as family's uncle and wanted to speak with us, why we, white Western women, wanted to know about Afghanistan? It became a play, he acting and I refucing to go along with his ideas of Kabul and sunnis.
I didn't feel confortable with the idea of him being a shia. He said something that made my lips shake (this ammused my photographer), he had paid smugglers to arrive in Finland. More he spoke about negative things of a country that isn't even his, I became very interested about the motives behind his behaviour. What lies in Afghanistan and especially in Kabul? As he tried his very best to make me feel scared and swear that I'll never go there, it did the opposite. Maybe he just didn't get it.
I always keep my word. I'll be in Kabul next fall.
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