Thursday 18 October 2007

Anne Holmes: Pul-e-Charki Jail

Image Copyright © Anne Holmes -All Rights Reserved

Anne Holmes is German-born and took her first trip at the age of six weeks, to Crete. She describes herself as peripatetic, and that home is where the suitcase is. After a career in the world of fine arts and troubled by the war -and the daily images in the headlines- in Iraq, she decided to become a photojournalist.

I chose Anne's photographs of the women inmates of Pul-e-Charki prison for TTP. Pul-e-Charki is a notorious large prison in Afghanistan east of Kabul. The prison is notorious for the torture and other abuses after it came under the control of Afghanistan's communist government following the invasion by the Soviet Union.

There are 8 cell blocks but only 3 are being used, and that causes overcrowding. The prison is making room for 110 prisoners that were in Guantánamo Bay. There are also about 70 female prisoners who share the prison. In most cases, children of the female inmates live with them in the prison. Anne photographs document these women.

Anne Holmes' Women of Pul-e-Charki

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